Battle Royale
by qtkitten13
Summary: It's time for the wizarding competition, and everyone is tense as they realize that their own siblings are now their competitors. To what lengths will they go to be the winner? The thrilling story continues - and here you thought it was over!
1. An unglorious birthday gift

Jerry Russo lined his kids up. Justin had just turned 18, which meant that all his kids were adults. Lucky Justin's biggest birthday present: This meant it was time for the Wizard Competition.

"As you know, only one child from each family is allowed to keep their power and be a wizard. The rest can have Wizard children, but are not wizards themselves. Now that one of you is considered an adult, it's time for you to have this competition. You're lucky, you know. In medieval times a wizard came of age at 13. There would be a competition even before some of their kids would be old enough to participate, or possibly before they were born. If a family had children after the competition, they would be born powerless. Unlucky for them." He paused.

"But like I said, you're lucky," he said at length, hint of irony in his voice. He sighed and looked at his kids.

"You do know that the competition didn't start yet? I know some people get the idea that they were already in competition, their whole lives, but it's only based on the competition you'll have now... not that wizards in the past haven't killed their siblings beforehand to win by default."

The kids edged away from each other, looking at one another with paranoia. Why hadn't they tried to kill each other yet? They spent all this time helping one another - what idiocy! Certainly, it had at least crossed Alex's mind to sabotage her older brother. He was the one about whom she'd worry in this contest. Max was no bother, to either of them. She also doubted Justin would have tried to sabotage her. He was either too honor-bound or too nice to try. Not that he would have any success. Alex smirked at this thought. She could outsmart him in a battle of subterfuge. Justin, meanwhile, was wondering what Alex was plotting. He was determined to win the competition and wouldn't let her win this time! Of course, the one consideration that didn't cross either of their minds was Max. Apparently, neither of them thought him to be any danger to their win. But what they didn't know what how crafty Max could be. The thoughts going through his head were ways to get at both of them. He always did feel like the odd one out, and now he would get his chance to prove his superiority to both of them.

"Max, wipe that evil grin off your face and pay attention," Jerry was saying. This brought all three siblings back to the here and now, with odd looks from Justin and Alex toward Max. They hadn't expected this from their younger brother. They both shuddered.

"Listen, the competition starts in a week, as soon as you're out of school for the summer. However, we can't guarantee that you'll be back by the fall – or that you'll be back at all," Jerry added in somber tones. He sighed again, and turned to the table nearby, and picked up three pocket-sized but thick leather-bound books. "These are the competition's rules," he said, handing one to each of them. "You are expected to know them and be bound by them. Let me tell you one rule first: You are allowed to forfeit. If any of you want to back out now, knowing the dangers that lie ahead, you can." He paused, during which the three kids looked at the ground and shuffled their feet, avoiding eye contact with each other or their father.

"No? Well then... next week you will be given a spell to cast. You will each be transported to a random location, and then you must find each other and engage in combat, physical, magical, or otherwise. You'll find out more from the rulebook."

He looked at his kids, pleadingly. "You don't _have_ to kill each other, you know," he explained, speaking softly, begging them not to. "Unless, upon defeat, the defeated refuses to forfeit. That is to say, the only options are death or forfeiture."

This didn't lead to the three sharp gasps he had expected. Perhaps the kids saw this coming. Perhaps they felt too nervous and sick to say anything.

"Are you all _certain _you don't want to forfeit now? It's the safest option, you know."

"What if we all forfeit?" Justin asked, academically curious about the situation despite what it was.

"Then you all lose your powers," he answered. "That's not the worst outcome! Please, if you all forfeit you will all be safe. Isn't your love for your siblings greater than your desire to win?"

Alex stepped forward. "I am not forfeiting," she said confidently. "I love you all, I really do." She looked around at each of them, Justin last, lingering perhaps a bit longer on him. "But my desire to be this family's wizard is stronger."

Justin stepped forth next. "I am not forfeiting either. This competition has been wizarding tradition for a thousand years. I'm only paying respect to it by giving Alex a competitor with whom to contend. Besides which, she stands no chance," he smirked at her.

Max stepped forward last. "Nor will I forfeit," he said. "These two underestimate me. _I_ will be the family wizard, or die trying." (When Theresa heard about Max's statement later, she cried for hours.)

"I was afraid of this," Jerry said solemnly.

After telling the kids to read the rulebook, he dismissed them, and they all left to their respective rooms, wordlessly. They didn't look at one another or their father as they retreated to prepare themselves. Jerry went up to the loft where Theresa was making dinner, as somber as the rest of them. Jerry had told her what would happen, and she was, to be frank, a bit mad at him. He said it was out of his hands, but she couldn't help but be upset.

"Theresa, honey," Jerry said, approaching her. Tears welled in her eyes as she caught his gaze, and she knew that she could no longer be mad at him. She needed his comfort and support in the months to follow if she were to get through the ordeal, although she knew that one or more of her children may die, and that two would at least lose their powers, that gift which they cultivated so carefully. She collapsed into his arms, and he carried her over to the couch – they held each other sobbing for some time until she could cry no longer, whereupon she finished dinner and called the kids down.

Dinner was tense. The kids sat as far away from one another as possible, and the whole table was silent.

"Pass the butter, Max," Alex said simply. He handed her something close by, but upon taking it, she saw that it was salt, instead of butter. "Max, you idiot, this is salt! How can you confuse salt and butter!"

"Maybe he did it on PURPOSE," Justin accused.

"No, it was an honest mistake!" Max cried in his own defense.

"Yeah, why are you picking on Max?" Alex yelled at Justin.

"Thanks Alex," Max began, only to be cut off by her.

"But you DID give me the wrong condiment!"

"Is butter even a condiment?" Justin said, steely-eyed.

"Shut up smartass!" Alex yelled. By now all three of them were standing and preparing to cast spells.

"Stop it!" Theresa yelled, crying. "No magic at the table! Sit down, all of you." Reluctantly, they all sat down. "And I have a request for you... please... don't kill each other." She choked up, and began sobbing again, her head down.

They hardly slept that night. Usually they didn't sleep with their doors locked, but for fear of having their throats slit in their sleep they took extra precautions. Alex and Justin even warded their doors with magical locks, despite their father's wishes against them using magic until the competition. Even Justin, the usually responsible rule-abiding one had a distrust of Alex (and to a lesser extent, Max) which lead him to take these security measures. Unnecessarily so, too, as none of the siblings had any plans to off their competition.

Alex mostly couldn't sleep. So thought long and hard about this competition and how it was affecting her relationship with her brothers. Of course, it had entirely ruined it. She realized though, that they WERE her brothers, and she should try to show mercy. She didn't want to have to kill them. Alex realized that despite being her competitors, she loved them. When she beat them, she decided, she would give them a chance to forfeit.

Hopefully they would do the same, if one of them found themselves in a winning position. She smiled at the thought of this unlikely occurrence, and then sighed, and leafed through the book.

"'Article 89: Otherwise Combat'," she read aloud. "What a weird name for a section. 'Combat need not be physical or magical. Both wizards can agree to another form of combat by signing a contract. The loser is expected to either forfeit or face death at the hands of the winner.' Huh."

She was happier the next morning, which Justin and Max found suspicious. Theresa was glad to see it, however.

"Alex,why are you so cheery this morning?" she asked.

"I found something about the competition," she explained. "Justin, Max, I need to show you something!" she cried. Begrudgingly, they trekked downstairs. Neither of them wanted to go first, and though Max ended up doing so, he still glanced behind him on the way down.

"Look at Article 89," she said, opening her leatherbound rulebook. "We don't have to fight, not violently anyway... we can design anything that can be construed as 'combat' to settle the competition."

Justin brightened up. "So, say, a chess match, instead?" he suggested. Alex looked disgusted, but then laughed.

"Something along those lines, but I'm not letting you play me in chess."

Theresa looked pleased that at the fact that her children were safe. At least as far as she knew.


	2. Max of the Jungle

The next few days were a bit lighter, though the kids didn't rag on each other nearly as much as they normally would. They kept their interactions to the usual pleasantries, not all their paranoia relieved. But overall they were able to act like a normal family, albeit perhaps a bit too normal for the Russo's. What Jerry ironically found he missed the most was Alex's smart-aleck comments. Smart Aleck, smart Alex – maybe it was her name that gave her that attitude! Jerry cracked a wry smirk at this, not wanting to feel too happy but needing the humorous pick-me-up. Still, she just wasn't herself. Neither, of course, were Justin or Max, but Justin's nerdiness and Max's inanity weren't as endearing as Alex.

Soon, the fateful time came, the time when the competition proper technically began. It started with a commencement ceremony, a lengthy ritual of cleansing and preparation, and accepting the responsibilities involved with the competition. It would be performed in the lair. Jerry set up a small table where the coffee table normally sat. It was taller than the coffee table, but didn't have as much surface area. Upon it was placed burning incense, a small bowl of water with a stone in it, and a feather.

The kids stood around the table, holding their rulebooks in their right hand and wands in their left. First, they performed a ritual invoking of the elements.

"_Terra! Ignis! Ventus! Aqua! COR!"_

"_Via viribus vobis temperaverunt, Capitaneus Orbis SUM!" _

Next, they all closed their eyes for a full minute and remained in silence. Then, they recited the acceptance of the rules. This involved them passing the rulebook over their heart while saying:

"_By these rules I agree to bide_

_'Til I've won or until I've died"_

"OK," Jerry said, looking at his kids. "Now you all have to say your individual spells, which will transport you to your random starting location, and the competition will commence. Goodbye everyone, and good luck."

Max was the first to read his spell:

"_Somewhere on the globe I am put_

_Now I begin, the game's afoot"_

And he was off with a puff of smoke. Then Alex recited hers:

"_I see London I see France_

_To someplace I will advance"_

And she was gone with a small sucking and a pop. Justin, being the oldest, read his last:

"_I won't be left out in the cold_

_This will be o'er before I'm old"_

And he too was transported away with an impressive whoosh. Now Jerry was left there alone, and he went up to see Theresa, who was crying once more.

"Don't worry, I think they'll all be all right," he said, hugging her, trying to comfort her and calm her down.

"I know, but it seems like no matter what happens, there will be a rift between them. They may never speak to each other again."

"I know, baby, I know."

* * *

Max looked around. He seemed to have found himself in some sort of jungle. A warm one, at that. It was probably about midday, except very little light was getting through the thick foliage. It did seem to be a clearing, at least, more clear than the rest of the jungle he saw.

"Well this is crap," he said aloud, though no one was around to hear it. But he felt like he had to express his dismay at where his randomly chosen location was. It hardly seemed fair; how did they expect him to do anything here? One thing was certain, he would have to prepare a way to sustain himself. He would start with building a shelter and starting a fire, which he decided to do by hand. He could probably conjure some sort of shelter, but that would require more of an energy expenditure than he was willing to sacrifice at the moment. The young wizard also figured that the same reason would prevent him from summoning too much food. He would have to hunt and gather his own.

So he ventured into to the jungle and collected dead wood and plant matter. He couldn't find any grass, but he did get some mosses, which he collected while trying to remember if mosses were plants or not. Well, some of it is green which implies that it photosynthesizes, and he knew that lichens were a symbiotic relationship between an algae and a moss – that was right, wasn't it? He sighed, thinking about how much smarter he actually was than everyone took him for. Hopefully, that would work out to his advantage in this competition. He knew that Justin and Alex would usually underestimate him, but would their extra caution make up for it? Well he knew only one thing: He had to be prepared. And he had to out-think them. OK, two things. He had to be prepared, he had to out-think them. And – he couldn't think of anything else, which disappointed him greatly because falling into a Monty Python skit was always amusing.

Quite quickly he managed to procure enough wood to start a decent-sized fire. Of course, there was the matter of lighting it, but with a quick snap of his fingers he was able to produce flame, which immediately began to consume the tender tinder he had gathered just for the purpose. Soon the lapping tongues of the fire licked at the larger twigs, which also ignited. It spread from there until he had the campfire he needed. Fortunately, the ground around the fire was dirt, and wouldn't burn. Just to be safe, he dug a trench around the fire. He would have laid stones, but none were to be found here.

Next, he had to build a shelter. It was back into the jungle for him, this time to find fresher wood and loose foliage to form a roof from. If only he had tools! Perhaps a little bit of magic would suffice here, he decided, and took a particularly large stick, and laid it on the ground.

Though being a wizard meant that one could generally ignore the laws of thermodynamics, it was much easier to break them less.

"_This stick belongs to me, Max_

_Now it needs to be an axe."_

That spell transmuted the wood into a conglomeration of wood and metal, in the form of an axe. Really, he just had to combine various carbon atoms into iron atoms, then restructure the whole thing into a different lattice-like combination. At least, Max always thought that it should work like that. In reality, it was magic and didn't obey rules of conservation of energy – which wasn't entirely true either, he was drawing energy both from within and another plane when he did this.

Either way, he now had himself a decent hatchet, which was an extremely handy tool to have anywhere, especially the jungle. He used it to hack at a live tree and gather sap in a leaf – he was going to use it to put together his roof. This wasn't the most effective measure to use, but he didn't have a sewing kit. Then it dawned on him, and he hit himself in the head. He was a _wizard_. Although he'd just used an ad-hoc spell, he decided that a sewing kit was useful enough to bother with another one.

He laid more sticks on the ground.

"_To make a roof over my head_

_These need to be needle and thread."_

He used the kit to sew together the large leaves and create a makeshift covering. Splitting freshly cut green wood with his hatchet allowed him to make crude rope, which he used to lash together the sturdier branches in a vaguely tent-shaped fashion. He drove the ends into the ground, and then gave it a good shake. It seemed sturdy enough, so he threw the cover over it and began to secure it with more 'rope.'

Once that was done, he gathered more mosses and leaves, and sewed them into a mattress. Just because he was roughing it didn't mean he didn't want at least a bit of comfort. Besides which, it wasn't that comfortable anyway, but it would do, especially being as tired as Max was at the moment. He proceeded to cast two spells before laying down for a nap. The first one would wake him up if anything entered the area (which he defined as the clearing) and the second would wake him up in two hours, if nothing else happened.

Nothing happened, at least nothing of which he was aware, in those two hours. He woke up, dismissed the ward and set about his next task, finding food. He realized that hunting wouldn't be much use, nothing too large lived in the jungle except maybe some big cats, which weren't good eating anyway. Of course, if he had to, he would, but he felt that trapping would be a more effective method of gathering meat. Gathering plants would be easy, but of course he had to make sure he wasn't getting anything poisonous.

He racked his brain for a while until he came up with an identification spell, which would tell him about various plants. He cast it numerous times, once on each plant he found, which told him about their various nutritive qualities. By this method, he gathered enough food for a meal, mostly berries and herb-like plants, which he ate while thinking up a method of building traps. Eventually, he decided that he would use the ward spell he had originally cast, but instead of waking him up, alter it to cast another spell, the second spell being something deadly.


	3. Alex is Roamin'

Alex found herself in a dark alley. Immediately, she cast a spell.

"_Obscuro." _It was an anti-scrying/detection spell, so that it would at least be a bit more difficult for Justin and Max to find her. She wasn't ready to confront them yet. 

Then she walked out from said alley into the street to see that it was covered in cobblestones. The architecture was unfamiliar to her, and when she listened to the people around she couldn't make out what they were saying. After walking around in crowds for a while, she realized that this was because they weren't speaking English.

"_Lost somewhere without a fish_

_To speak this tongue is my wish"_

She grinned at the spell, wishing she had known it when she was failing Spanish.

Next, she decided to figure out where she was. Posing as a tourist, which was basically true anyway, she approached a random man on the street. He was middle aged and with a similarly aged woman, likely his wife, so she felt like it would be a good source of information.

"Excuse me, sir, could you tell me where there is a nearby information center?" She hoped that the spell wouldn't mask her American accent, though she could have just said she was a tourist and he would probably be understanding.

"Your Italian is wonderful," he replied, smiling at the pretty young thing that was speaking to him. He then proceeded to give her directions. She thanked him profusely and went on her way.

While walking down the street toward the visitor center she passed by a shop with a sign outside that read "Psychic Advisor" (Only in Italian, of course). She ducked in to see a quaint little shoppe filled with New-Agey occultish knickknacks, as she had largely expected. An old woman dressed like a gypsy sat behind the counter. She smiled at Alex as the American looked around, eventually finding a crystal ball. Alex blew some dust off of it, and examined it closely. It wasn't authentically a wizard crystal ball, but it would do in a pinch as a focus for a scrying spell.

"Would you accept 20 US dollars for this?" she asked. She wasn't sure of the exact exchange rate, but she did know that she was overpaying. After a brief hesitation, the 'psychic' said she would, and Alex had purchased herself a crystal ball. She thanked the shopkeeper and proceeded to the information center.

The information center had pamphlets and "Welcome to Rome" signs in various languages, including English. It even had a place to exchange your money, so she converted all of her US currency while she was there, and then purchased maps and visitor guides.

Her next priority was to try and find out what Justin and Max were up to and where they were. She wasn't about to fight them, but she did need to know that they weren't about to attack her. She took her crystal ball back to the Psychic's shop, and approached the shopkeeper again.

"Excuse me miss, but might I borrow your back room? I'd like to, er, try out my new crystal ball," she said, hoping she would buy this story.

"Oh! Would you like a private reading, perhaps?"

"No, that's quite all right. I am, um, in touch with the spirit world, but I require privacy to communicate with the world beyond..."

"Oh. Four-fifty an hour," she replied. Alex smirked and retreated into the private room. Hopefully, she wouldn't even need a complete hour just to detect her brothers. She sat the Crystal ball on the table – the ball was far too small for the table and she figured that the 'psychic' had a bigger, fancier one she would use for conning her customers into thinking that she actually had any powers. Or maybe she believed it herself. Actually, it was possible that she did, Alex reminded herself. After all, no one would expect Alex to be a wizard, and she knew that old gypsies, witches and psychics actually did exist. Still, they were rare and it was much more likely that this woman out here was either a nut-job or fraud.

"_Demonstre Justin!"_ she said, casting the first scry. Nothing happened. She hit the crystal ball, as though it might help. She cleared her head, focused on Justin, and... "_Demonstre Justin!" _ This time, there was a flash of light, and then a dull white glow. "So he's got the same blocking spell on," she said to herself, biting her bottom lip thoughtfully.

"_Demonstre Max!"_ This time it showed her Max. He was sleeping in a makeshift hut in the middle of what looked like a jungle. For a moment, she felt sorry for her younger brother, and then remembered that he was her competition and she shouldn't waste too much pity.

Why hadn't he cast an obscuring spell? Probably he hadn't thought of it, he wasn't known to be the brightest of the Russo kids. That would be Alex, she thought, smirking gleefully.

The scrying ritual had only taken her 20 minutes, but she plopped a five on the counter and told the woman to keep the change. The only thing that she would have to do next would be to earn some money and find a place to stay until she was ready to find her brothers and _utterly destroy them_.


	4. Justin's Dimensional Anchorage

Justin had found himself in Anchorage, Alaska, which he had rather quickly discovered. The first thing he had done, however, was cast the same anti-detection spell that Alex had. He wasn't about to take any chances at them finding him before he was ready. Next, he had to procure lodgings for an indefinite period. Although he had saved money from working the sandwich shop, he still had to be frugal about it, and he sighed as he checked into a cheap motel.

"Hey kid, what are you here for?" the burly receptionist asked, apparently put off by the youth's absence of parents. Despite 18 being the age of majority, it looked like Justin wasn't about to be taken seriously. He did look a bit young, he had to admit.

"I'm checking out colleges," he lied, a believable enough bluff that he didn't expect he would run into any trouble using it. The check-in guy just grunted, he either bought it or didn't care. Either would suffice for the young Russo wizard. He went up to his room, taking his bag (which he had just purchased) up with him.

The first thing he did when in the room was turn on the shower and lock the door. He was going to scry for Alex and Max and didn't want anyone overhearing the ritual. There was a mirror in the room proper, and it would suffice as a focus.

"_Demonstre Alex!" _he said, and the mirror showed the white glow of an obscured scry. He smiled despite himself, and despite the fact that she was his competitor, he still felt a glow of affection and what was almost a sense of pride. She had apparently learned enough to hide herself from simple detection spells, but Justin was confident that he would be able to break through, given enough time. Until then, he would deal with Max.

"_Demonstre Max!" _was his next spell. There was Max all right, no protection up whatsoever. He seemed to be in the jungle, gathering firewood. He must have lit a fire, because Justin saw there was smoke welling up not too far behind him. He moved the magical sensor around a bit – although it couldn't get too far away from the subject of the spell he was able to get a good picture of his camp. Although he didn't know to which jungle Max had been transported, it wasn't necessary to know to teleport there, just that he see the location, which he could tell through the scry. Still, a good wizard should always be prepared, which is why he had bought a world map. He dug through his bag – there were no clothes, since he had a spell to magically wash the ones he was wearing – but there were odds and ends of all sorts. He pulled out his map, unfolded it and set it on the bed.

"_Ubi in orbe est Max?" _he asked the map. A red dot appeared in the middle, and it slowly moved toward South America. It stopped at a point in the Amazon jungle and blinked. Justin sighed. Of all the places in the world to go, Max had to have the worst luck. Justin might as well let the jungle kill his little brother and keep his hands clean. But no, what was it that Alex had wanted? If they could, not kill each other, would that be too much to ask?

Justin had on an inane grin. He wouldn't kill his brother, but maybe, just maybe, he would make him slightly more likely to _get_ killed by the terrifying jungle in which he resided.

"_With your fate I will muck_

_You've run all out of luck." _

It was an unluck spell. He felt the energy leave him, but something he hadn't expected, he could tell that it didn't make it to its target. Mumbling _"Castor et Pollox" _he cast the spell again.

"_With your fate I will muck_

_You've run all out of luck. Verbose" _

Casting the spell with verbose option allowed him to trace the energies more closely. He saw the target and confirmed that it was Max, as it had his energy signature. But there was something else around him – a ward or barrier of some sort. The energy from his spell 'bounced' off of the barrier. Something else came back at him, a slight ping from Max, as though to say "I saw that."

Justin sat on the bed and crossed his legs. He wasn't about to lose a psychic battle to his little brother. He went into a trance that would let him see and follow energy, decoded by his sight center, and that 'sixth sense' that let a wizard detect magical energy .He began to 'ping' Max, sending him small packets of energy with no data encoded, meant to distract him, while he build a wall similar to Max's ward around himself. He saw the pings also get discarded by the ward, which he had expected. Max sent pings back, but they were mere annoyances until he got his own barrier up. He then began crafting an energy packet that would 'disassemble' his mental shielding, while focusing on energy packets that Max sent and returned them by hand, which required he take focus off of his own construction. It was eventually finished, and he sent it at Max. It 'stuck' on his mental barrier and began 'eating' at it, but Max soon dispatched constructs that patched up his shielding and destroyed his own construct – but his split into multiple entities, each with the same programming. Justin smirked, thinking he was getting ahead, when he detected a weakness in his own barrier. Just as he was about to patch it, he saw an energy packet that was almost invisible. It got into his barrier, and then everything went black.

He woke up hours later, still exhausted. The shower, which had been on a timer, had turned off some time ago. He re-erected wards and barriers of all sorts. Anti-detection, anti-scrying, psychic barriers, teleport blocks, the works. _Well played, little brother, well played. _


	5. Alex the Shark

Alex had set up a small table and was running a three-card monte, but not taking peoples' money for it. "Everyone knows this is a trick," she told the viewers. "So I'm not going to take your money. But who wants to try it?" Of course, she was using _real _magic instead of sleight of hand, but that she didn't tell them. Instead she collected tips.

"Congratulations, sir," she said to someone who had picked the queen of hearts out of the three cards on the table. She had let him find it, of course, and she shook his hand. When she withdrew, she had gotten his watch off and was palming it. Oh how low she had stooped – a common con artist and criminal. Still, she needed the money. With her subtlety he wouldn't notice until she was long gone out of his life, hopefully. But just to be extra cautious, she had disguised herself. She was now blonde, with blue eyes and thinner cheekbones and looked slightly older. She didn't think she looked as pretty as normal, but this was no time to worry about good looks. She had collected about 100 worth of pickpocketed bills and jewelry, never too much from one mark, and had an additional 3.93 in tips.

Suddenly she saw a police officer down the street, walking her direction and she knew that her gig was up. She would have to pack things up quickly. Despite the fact that she wasn't technically doing anything wrong, visibly at least, she didn't want to attract attention.

"Sorry folks, gotta pack it up," she said calmly, pocketing her cards and ducking into a nearby alley, much to the crowd's bewilderment. When in the alley, she changed her illusionary disguise to be a stunning redhead. Her theory was that keeping to disguises that stood out, especially in Italy, so that she would have people looking for them rather than her undisguised. So when she popped out of the alley, she tossed her head, making sure to catch the officer's attention, and resisted the urge to wave. The young wizard sauntered down the street in the opposite direction for some time, and then ducked into another alley, while remarking on the fact that it was physically impossible to enter an alley via a method other than ducking. She dispelled her illusion, and then looked around the alley. There were two doors to buildings on either side, and she tried both of them; they were, as she had expected, both locked. She cast a spell on the one that was on the left-hand from entering the alley.

"_They wouldn't open if I knocked  
I need this door to be unlocked._"

The spell took a few seconds to pick the lock, and then Alex was able to open the door. She inhaled, and braced herself for whomever she might meet inside. As it turned out, she had stepped into a kitchen of what was probably a restaurant. It was dark at the moment, which was fortunate. She cautiously stepped out into the dining area to find that it too, was abandoned. Curious, but lucky. She wasn't going to exit immediately, so she went back into the kitchen and opened up the refrigerator, looking for some food. If she was going to be a criminal, she might as well go all the way. Besides which, she would be out of the country soon if she played her cards right. She didn't consider herself to be a bad person, of course. At least, not a criminal. Sure, she stretched the rules at times, but right now, she just had to look out for herself.

As she sat down, eating her sandwich (working at a sandwich shop had taught her extraordinary sandwich skills), she began to question her actions. She didn't feel well about what this competition had driven her to. Plotting against her brothers out of necessity, being overcome with paranoia, and then theft and dodging the cops! A tear fell down her cheek, which she wiped away with a brown napkin from the table.

In any event, there was no time to feel sorry for herself right now. She had to get to a pawn shop to sell her ill-gotten goods. She finished up her sandwich and left by the back door, re-locking it behind her. There was no sense in making it too obvious that something had happened, because although she wasn't a criminal by training, she felt like she had enough common sense to avoid detection for quite some time. They seemed simple, things like "Don't leave evidence." She was amazed at how good she was at this whole crime thing, though again, a little harrowed. She shuddered and went on her way.

She knew, from maps of the city she had purchased, where she could find a reputable pawn shop, though there always was something shady about them. Again not wanting to attract suspicion, she conjured up another disguise – this one also a brunette, but more auburn than her own hair, and made sure to give herself a different facial structure from either of the other two. Illusions were easy – imagine it and it's there. The hardest part of her disguise would be the acting. Trying to concentrate on what a terrible person she had become, she began crying before she entered the pawn shop. She didn't go for uncontrolled sobs, but wanted a few stray tears. Then it was show time.

She went in, and saw that it was even more disorganized than the psychic's place. "Can I help you?" an old man asked gently, evidently noting her disheveled and tearful state. She pulled out the various bits of jewelry she had stolen.

"These are the only momentos we have from our grandmother," she said slowly, trying not to part with them too quickly. "But we've fallen on hard times. Oh grandmama!" she sobbed here. "We just ask that you give what you can for them."

"Ah, would you be pawning them, then?"

"As hard as it is, we don't think we'll make it without every little bit we can get. They are to be sold."

"I'm sorry to hear that ma'am... I hope I can give you fair price for them."

Alex made a point of saying goodbye to each item as the transaction was completed, and when it was over, she sniffled a bit, and thanked the man. She had come out with about 80 if she got the exchange rate right, which was a bit less than she had expected, but it would have to do.

The next task was to find herself a place to sleep for the night. She couldn't very well bed down in the streets, after all. Fortunately, all her money was currently alloted to finding a place, because she had found free food and food and shelter were all she needed. Still, she was going to be thrifty about it, and by calling for information from a phone booth (which she magically hacked to get her free calls), she was able to find a place cheap enough that she would still have money left over to take a cab there. She made reservations, and then called for a cab. While still in the booth, she changed her disguise to look like an older woman, in her late 20s or early 30s, so that the various people with whom she would have to interact, such as the cabbie and the hotel people, wouldn't find a 16 year old traveling alone to be odd. Such deceit filled her life these days.

The cab got her there right on time, and she made sure not to tip the driver. She did thank him profusely, and her disguise was pretty enough that he probably wouldn't complain about the lack of tip. She felt bad stiffing him, but she was on a budget. Besides, he was paid by the cab company, and she paid her fare, it was even. People had to watch out for themselves in this world, that was one thing that this competition had taught her, and taught her well. She checked into the hotel, and after putting up various magical wards and barriers, she went to bed. It wasn't the most comfortable bed, but she didn't expect much for the price. Besides, a free breakfast was included. She would use that to her full advantage the next morning.

She woke up after a night of fitful dreams. She dreamed of home and how she, Justin and Max used to get along so well, were such good siblings (at least most of the time), and generally of those ethereal and quintessential 'good old days.' Then the dreams had turned sour, with dark clouds shutting out the sun, her brothers being torn from her and then turned into terrible monsters which wanted to eat her. Trying to shake it off, she showered, cast a clothes-cleaning spell and fretted that she had to wear the same outfit two days in a row. She had to smile at herself when she realized that she was actually worrying about such things in a time like this. Her illusions would cover it anyway, but the problem was that _she_ would still know she was wearing the same thing. C'est la vie, which is ironic.

The first thing she did after waking and showering was recast the anti-detection spell. It should still be good from last night, but she was being cautious. Then she had breakfast, and after making sure to eat enough for breakfast and lunch, due to uncertainty of when her next meal would be, she checked out of the hotel and wandered back onto the streets.

She realized that she should probably be preparing to face Justin and Max, but she didn't know exactly what that would entail. Possibly reading up on spells and techniques, or getting training from some ancient seers, but she didn't know where she would begin trying to find any of them. Her strategy was to be ready in case they came to her, continuously scry on them both in case they got sloppy, and hope that they would face each other before they came to confront her. So far it seemed to be working, after all, she was still alive and undefeated.

Until then, she decided to take in the sights of the city. After all, she'd never been to Rome before, and she was half Italian. She planned a route that would take her to a few historical locations, all with affordable buses between them. If she didn't get any souvenirs, she felt that she could stretch her money far enough to still have a good time – relatively so, anyway.

One stop was St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, technically its own sovereign nation. (With a better postal service than Italy's.) She wasn't Catholic, although not areligious, and she certainly didn't want to explain how she was descended from a family of Italian wizards that disagreed with the church's anti-magic stance and so had fled the country and eventually the continent, but she did _look_ Catholic. Half-Latino, half-Italian, after all, meant that either way the stereotype would hold.


	6. Bing Bang Walla Walla Bing Bang

Max was still living off of the land, at the moment eating a bird which he had identified as being safe to eat. Most birds were, of course. There were very few poisonous or toxic birds, but with his luck, they probably lived here. So he had to make sure to identify any catch anyway. His hunting tactics had changed from simple trapping to a more proactive approach. He would spot an animal and then reach out magically and _stop its heart_. Any animal would stop in its tracks, birds falling from the sky, and they would be dead within seconds. It was a quick and non-destructive method of killing. He would then cook the meat over his well-kept fire.

He had moved his camp from the clearing to a more crowded spot in the jungle, which he cleared with his hatchet and another tool he had conjured up, a machete. He strung up a shelter between some trees, and built a trench for his fire. Now he had obscuring wards up, and he kept the clearing protected by a firetrap spell. If Justin or Alex teleported into where they would have last seen him, they would be faced with a near-fatal surprise, and the sound would alert him – he would rush in to declare his victory. They would surely forfeit after that, and if not, he was prepared to break the 'plan' that Alex had had for a non-lethal victory.

While eating, he suddenly heard the fireball explode, and someone scream. He drew his machete and rushed into the clearing, expecting to see either Justin or Alex lying on the ground, singed and writhing in pain. Instead, he saw another person signed and writhing in pain – he appeared to be an indigenous person. He must have wandered into this clearing and set off the trap. Max muttered the universal tongues spell and approached him.

"Oh gods, what happened?" the man said, filled with fear at seeing Max.

"Flash-fire, natural phenomenon," Max explained to him. "Hold up."

Max passed his hands over the burnt flesh, healing it behind him. The man seemed to relax, obviously no longer in pain. "Are you some kind of medicine man?" he said suspiciously.

"Yes, let's say that," Max mumbled. "Where do you live?"

"About an hour that way," he said, motioning to the south.

"Can you take me there?"

"Certainly, my people will want to meet you."

So the native man led Max southward to another clearing. This one was larger, large enough to have a small village in it. It bulged out of the clearing and encroached upon the jungle itself. A number of people poked their heads out of little huts, seeing this white intruder coming in. But since he was escorted by one of their own, they paid him little heed except to stay out of his way. He was led directly to the chief, and the story of the 'natural phenomenon' and miraculous healing was told.

"He sounds more powerful than our medicine man," said the chief. "Call him forth!" Max's escort left, and came back in a few minutes with a relatively ornately clothed man, whom Max took to be their medicine man.

"This white intruder is more powerful than you, Androcas," the chief said, as a manner of challenge.

"We clearly need to engage in ritual magical combat in order to discover who is!" the medicine man, named Androcas, cried. Max rolled his eyes. Nothing could be _simple, _could it? Well he was willing to defeat this backwater hack, even if he was magical himself.

"OK Cas-man, let's rumble."

Before he knew it, he was led once again to a clear ring, with him standing at one side, and his opponent at the other. The villagers had gathered around the ring to watch what they clearly thought was going to be an epic fight.

Wordlessly, Max erected a physical shield, and immediately followed it by a mental ward. It was fortunate that he chose this order, for the other wizard's first attack came at him – it was a bolt of energy, which glanced off his shield harmlessly. He patched the spot worn by the bolt and carried on.

With the slightest, most imperceptible of gestures toward Androcas, he did the same thing to him that he did to a dozen animals before: He stopped his heart. Androcas gripped his chest and fell to the ground. Someone rushed over to him, but after a few seconds, Max restarted his heart. It was, nevertheless, clear who was the victor.

"Thank you, for sparing me," gasped Androcas, who had realized he was given a reprieve from death.

"Our people are at your service, O powerful one," the chief said, bowing to him. The rest of the villagers followed suit. It looked like there would be a new chief around here, whether in name or actual power. Max would be sure to flex as much of his power as he could.

He told them about what was going on - how he was running from his siblings and they would probably come after him some time soon. Until they, they could take him in, set him up in a hut, preferably one near their graveyard.

It had only been a few hours since his victory, and already people were lining up outside his door to get aid. People came asking for blessings, healing, fertility. In one way, it was neat to be in such a position of respect, yet in another way, it meant he had to prove himself in more ways than just magical combat.

Someone came to him with a deep wound on their leg – a small boy with his mother. Max asked her what the previous medicine man would suggest, and she said to rub an herb on it.

"I wouldn't suggest that, it could get infected."

"Infected?"

"...eat this herb instead," Max said, handing her an herb that would do nothing but flavor meats. Meanwhile he passed his hand over the wound, magically sewing it up. His power was clearly growing.

For most of the people, he just made up some ritual while he wordlessly cast a good luck charm. Or he healed wounds, at least as best as he could. In other parts of the world he would be hailed as either a miracle worker or demon worshiper. Such naivety, he was neither. Here they thought he was a natural part of the institution – everyone had one, it was just natural. Natural, that's how he viewed magic. It came to him naturally, he did it naturally, hardly without thinking about it. He loved his father, but the lessons went over his head. That was probably why Alex and Justin didn't think he was good at magic. Hopefully this underestimation would serve him well.


	7. The Plan

Justin checked out of the hotel, believing he wouldn't be staying in this city for much longer, at least if all went according to plan. In preparation for his inevitable defeat of Max and Alex he was searching for a particular ancient grimoire, or rather its translation. It was a well-known occult book, even among the mortals, yet in the hands of a wizard it would be extraordinarily powerful. The book for which he searched was none other than the fabled _Necronomicon, _a vile book filled with the most distasteful of rituals for invoking the Great Old Ones. It included the nastiest spells, and was possibly considered one of the most evil books ever written. The Mad Arab Alhazred was called _mad_ for a reason, after all, there's mad, and then there's invoking beings insane beyond that which man can even begin to imagine fathoming. Even reading from that book was an _insanely _bad idea for normal mortals. Justin hoped that wizards would be able to read it and retain their mental capacities. There was only one way to find out, and that was to obtain a copy for himself.

Of course, the best extant translation was locked up in the Miskatonic University archives. It had not been released for public viewing since the 1920s, and Justin was certainly not going to pass for an important researcher. But he _was _a wizard – he could surely get by any security they had it under.

At a public library he did research on the Miskatonic University – this in itself wasn't suspicious. He needed a target to teleport to, though, so he looked at pictures of its grounds. Although it was much less accurate to teleport someplace with a mere picture, he would make do with what he had. One could teleport to a very general location without even a picture; he could probably get to Massachusetts without seeing the location, simply by focusing on where he knew the state was. It's why the spell to transport to Mars worked the way it did. Mars was a big target, and where you ended up was more or less random.

But that was off topic. On topic right now was finding a place to which to teleport. He wanted to choose an out-of-the-way location, but such places were never shown in brochures. His best bet was to choose an out-of-the-way _time. _He'd go around 3AM when no one would notice if someone suddenly appeared. This gave him about a day to prepare for his assault on the library. Fortunately, public maps of their libraries were available. The tricky part would be figuring out which private collection it would be held in. He browsed internet forums all day, looking for rumors about which locked room he might find it in. Rumors were often at least partially true, and he would start looking where the majority of the rumors said it lied. He studied the maps carefully, looking for ways into the locked rooms. Unfortunately, they seemed to be well protected. One door in, always locked, under electronic locks. He wasn't sure what to expect when he got in there, either, but he imagined a glass case, also locked with electronic locks, possibly with infrared beams across the artifact. His heart rate quickened at the thought of pulling a heist, and in some ways he longed for a companion to commit it with, possibly even his sister. If only she weren't his primary competitor, she was perfect for this sort of caper. But no, was she really his _primary_ competitor? After all, the psychic battle he had with Max had taught him that his little brother was capable of literally killing someone by thinking too hard. He would even consider a temporary alliance against him, except that he didn't trust Alex. Ah how he actually _missed _their battles of wits, despite the fact that she usually won, even he would admit this. Well this is one battle she wouldn't win, if he had anything to do with it!

His plan was to first teleport there, and then scour the building. He would either have to work quickly, or spread his assault out over a few days. Since his obscuring ward held up, at least as far as he knew, he didn't feel like he was in danger of being located. Plus, he was about to move. Although his energy signature would be traceable from Anchorage to Boston for a while, he didn't think that either of his siblings had been able to get past his defenses, especially without him knowing. So this meant that he was going to take his time, at the very least. He would perform reconnaissance when he teleported there, then check into a hotel somewhere again. The next day, he would go to the library and look around. That night, hopefully, he would pull it off.

Gaining access to the library would be a trick in itself. Normally, it was only open to researchers, faculty and students. His plan here was to pose as a student. Again, this would require some trickery. He figured his best bet would be to fabricate a student ID, though they had no samples of them on the internet. Besides which, he wasn't going to commit forgery in the middle of a public library in Anchorage. He would have to think something up when he got there. The worst case scenario would have him charming someone into giving over their student ID, which was actually a plan that was growing on him. He wished he could practice the charm spell, but there was no good way to do that. Charming someone was best done when said victim was alone, so as not to raise suspicion among others that may be around.

He stayed in the Anchorage public library until closing time, at which point he went for a walk. He still had about five to six hours to kill until he would make the move to Boston. He carried his bag into an all-night diner and ordered a coffee, hoping that they would let him stay there as long as he kept ordering something, so he would keep the coffees coming. In many places, coffee refills were free, and it would annoy them to give him free coffee for six hours. Then again, this might be a perfect time for him to practice the charm spell. After all, it would really just be him and the waitress bringing the coffee. He decided to risk it.

After a few hours, the waitress came over to him, full of intent. Justin thought that this was it, she was going to ask him to leave. What surprised him was that she sat down across from him.

"You've been here a while, kid. You OK?"

"Yeah, kinda. It's been a long couple of days."

"What's going on?"

"I'm kind of fighting with my younger brother and sister."

"I see. Over what?"

_That_ was a hard question to answer. He would have to lie, of course, so he said the first thing that came to mind.

"An uncle's estate. He passed away without a clear will."

"Ah, I see... well I wouldn't let it get between you too much. I mean, they're still your siblings, right?"

"I guess so... I just need some time to think."

"That's fine, honey," she said, filling his coffee. "You just take your time, we're open all night."

As she left, he thought about the irony of her fulfilling a diner stereotype.

He stayed there for a few more hours, paid his bill, and then left with his bag in tow. He walked down the street, out of sight of anyone, and then teleported away.


	8. New York, New York

Little known wizard fact – even wizards without their powers, such as Jerry Russo, can still use certain magical artifacts. Certain staves and wands are imbued with spells, which can be discharged to cast those spells. Jerry had acquired a wand of scrying that was supposed to be particularly powerful. Although his wizard senses no longer functioned, he had been hearing tales in the wizarding community about a particularly powerful entity that had popped up in the Amazon jungle. The Council had told him where his kids would be transported to, and Max was supposed to be in the Amazon. Though he had never known the kid to be that powerful, he was still curious. So he purchased a WandSmart 5000, with 20 charges of Scrying.

"_Demonstre Max!" _he said into his ClearSite Genuine Crystal Ball (With Mahogany Stand). It showed him his youngest son, aiding indigenous peoples with his magic. They seemed to look up to him, and he seemed to lord his power over him. There was nothing particularly _powerful_ that he seemed to do, so he cast a scry again.

"_Demonstre Max verbose auras." _This would not only give him further information (down to the latitude and longitude of the target!) but it would also show auras around people, including their relative power levels. Everyone in the scene had an aura, of course, but their medicine man's clearly showed more power than an ordinary mortal. But Max's aura was blindingly bright. He had never known that Max had possessed such power. And he was currently using it to help people. Yet his aura betrayed something sinister underneath that. He didn't excel at aura reading, so he couldn't quite be sure what it was.

"_Demonstre Alex verbose auras," _was his next spell. It showed a fuzzy white image for a while, and then he received a mental ping that said "Negotiating past anti-detection...complete," and Alex showed up. She was in Rome, sightseeing, of all things. For some reason this didn't surprise Jerry at all. Still, that by no means discounted her. Her aura was also very powerful, though not quite as much so as Max's.

"_Demonstre Justin verbose auras_" he said, finally. It showed the same fuzzy white image, negotiated past anti-detection again. This time it took a bit longer, Justin's protection was clearly better. It showed him sitting in a public library in Anchorage, apparently doing research. His aura was more powerful than Alex's, but not up to the level of Max's. After a bit, Jerry got another ping "Scrying noticed" and in the image, Justin cast a spell, and then the image turned white and emitted an ear-piercing screech. Jerry rushed to cover his ears, and then canceled the spell. Meanwhile, he moved some pegs on a board around. The one marked "Alex" he moved to the last position, and slightly ahead of her he placed Justin's peg. Max's lead the pack by more than Justin was beating Alex.

Jerry went up to Theresa in the sub shop. She was sweeping and looking nervous.

"Any news on the kids?" she asked cautiously.

"They're all OK," he opened with, eliciting a sigh of relief from his wife. "Max is helping out native peoples in the Amazon, Alex is sightseeing in Rome, and Justin is researching something on the internet. Honey, you're not going to believe this, but I think Max is furthest ahead, magically."

"Really? But I thought he never seemed to take to the lessons."

"It happens every once in a while that a wizard has power that does not come from study and hard work. It is natural, ingrained magic that he draws from the very cosmos themselves. They are sometimes called _sorcerers _to differentiate them from wizards. They have no penchant for book learning or memorizing spells, but they have a raw natural power."

He paused for a minute, and sighed as though unsure if he should continue.

"It is said that extremely powerful sorcerers can retain their power even if they lose the competition, because they draw it from what might be a different source."

"So Max might get to keep his powers even if he loses?"

"That's my theory, but be warned, it's hard to check. Usually, the sorcerer is so powerful that they win."

"I never would have expected that from Max," Theresa said, leaning on her broom. "Why didn't we notice this earlier?"

"I don't know, but his full powers only came in two years ago. I mean, it's not an odd time for them at all, but it wasn't long before the competition. I don't know what we could have done even if we had seen it, though."

"As long as my babies are safe, I don't care."

"Well they seem to be." _So far_, he added inwardly.

They finished cleaning up the sub shop, having already closed up, and then Theresa made an instant meal for dinner, neither of them caring enough to put effort into a meal at the moment. For dessert, Jerry had plenty of pudding – his comfort food. After dinner, they both retired to their rooms, got ready for bed and said good night to one another, with few other interactions.

They had surprisingly pleasant dreams – of times long past when the family was together. Of times when Alex was acting up and needed to be punished, times when Max didn't seem to grasp something. Time when Justin did well in school and Alex heckled him for it. How they missed those times. Their dreams turned sour, with dark clouds on the horizon that threatened to approach, bringing with them much worse than just rain and thunder.

They awoke, said good morning and prepared for work, again with little other interaction with one another. They went through their day somberly, current events weighing on their minds heavily. They just wanted it to be over soon, with all of their kids safe. Jerry reckoned that even if he still had his powers, he would give them up for that.


	9. The Heist

Justin had teleported to the Miskatonic University and had already looked around the building at night. He couldn't, unfortunately, find the way the power came into the building, which is what he had most wanted. If he could cut the power, it would negate some of the security systems. Unfortunately, the door into the private collection would probably lock as a precaution, but he felt he could deal with that when the time came.

As it was now, he was checked into a hotel room. He put his wards up again, making sure they were double strength. Someone had gotten through back when he was in Anchorage, and he hoped that they hadn't traced him here. It was a good thing he was changing locations anyway, since he would have had to if he hadn't. He vaguely wondered if Max would do the same thing, move since he had been found out, but he decided to worry about that later as well. After all, after he transported to the Amazon he might be able to trace his signature, unless he had been gone for a while. But his last efforts had revealed that Max was still in the Amazon – he had even found himself a tribe of savages to lead. How sweet – and yet he still wasn't keeping up obscuring wards. Alex on the other hand was keeping up wards, but Justin worked through them. She was still just lallygagging around in Rome. At least _he_ was searching for something that would make him all the more powerful. Certainly after performing the rituals outlined in the book, he would be the most powerful wizard in the family, that is, if he wasn't already.

His story to the check in person was that he was checking out Miskatonic University, which was strictly true. In fact, when he did get out of this with his wizard powers, he might still come here. After all, there might be a chance that he'd get access to their department again. Not to mention, if his plan went off properly, he would have to return the _Necronomicon _eventually. He had no reason not to, after all, he wasn't a common thief. Alex, maybe, but certainly not him. It was just...interlibrary loan. From Miskatonic's private collections to the personal collection of Justin Russo. Still, that could wait until tomorrow.

The next day, he got his wakeup call from the hotel at promptly 6, as he had asked, and he got up, dressed and showered, taking his time, since the library didn't open until 9 anyway. He even had a leisurely continental breakfast, taking full advantage of the fruits, cereals and instant waffles they offered. He checked out of the hotel with his bag, and headed for the university. Fortunately for him, the hotel mostly catered to parents of students who were visiting, so it was very close to the campus.

On his way to the library, he saw a young man walking the other direction. Thinking he might need a student ID, he approached him.

"Excuse me sir," he said.

"How can I help you?" he asked, not in an unfriendly manner. Clearly he was used to being asked for help, and probably figured that this fellow was visiting the campus (which was true) and was asking directions.

"_You will give me your student ID,_"Justin said, casting the charm. Obediently, the student reached into his wallet and handed it over.

"Thanks, I'll give it back," Justin said, almost apologizing, but still leaving the fellow in a dazed and confused state. This was perfect.

Justin entered the library, and handed the borrowed ID to the check-in woman. "Are you sure this is you?" she asked, quizzically.

"_It is me, you will let me in," _he said, again casting the charm. She obeyed like the victim before her. How weak these mortals' minds must be. She swiped him in, and he went and looked around.

The first thing he looked for was a door to stairs down, or an elevator. The circuit breaker would probably be in the basement somewhere. When he found a door that looked promising, it was locked and said "Employees only"

"We'll see about that," Justin mumbled, and cast an invisibility spell. This was one he had learned on his own. It was quite powerful and extremely handy. Next, he cast the unlocking spell. It took a few minutes, but the spell worked its magic and he was in. Just as he had suspected, there were stairs down. He began descending, keeping an ear out for employees walking up the stairs. His vigilance paid off – eventually he heard someone coming up the the other way. He froze and clung to the side of the wall, still invisible. He saw the worker walking up, a youngish woman wearing a plain gray skirt and white blouse. She was carrying three books upstairs. Apparently they had some storage downstairs. That wasn't where the _Necronomicon_ was allegedly held, though, so it didn't interest him, except that it was where the circuit breaker would be.

He ventured down, finding a long corridor. He followed it toward the end, looking at the doors on either side. One was marked "Maintenance," so he took a shot that this would be the right door. Inside, he found a boiler, a backup generator, a wall full of pipes, and lo and behold, the circuit breaker. He opened it up and cast a delayed spell. The simple telekinesis spell would flip the switch, and the delay would do it at the exact right time. He set it for 1AM, and then turned to the backup generator. He cast a delayed telekinesis spell on this too, this one to simply flip the switch 'off'. Both of these would be easy to diagnose and solve, but hopefully by then he would be out of there.

He left by the same path, dispelled the invisibility spell at the top of the steps when he thought no one was watching. Unfortunately, he was wrong. The employee from earlier was just around the corner.

"Where'd you come from?" she asked.

"_You will not ask_," he said, casting the charm.

"Um, no, I am asking. What do you think you are, some kind of Jedi?" The charm seemed to not work on her. Perhaps librarians were stronger-willed. He would have to bluff his way through this one.

"Ha, no no, I was just looking for the the Tumpkin collection."

"The Tumpkin collection? I believe it's in storage. That's restricted right now. You're not allowed down there."

"Oh, but one of the last extant journals of the little known philosopher Edward Wates, England 1052 is one of them"

"I see you know your stuff! Well, I can't help you, but I _can _tell you that the collection will be open for public viewing in the fall."

"Well thank you very much. I'll quell my curiosity until then."

He left her there, apparently out of trouble. He sighed with relief when he was out of sight.

That night, at precisely 12:58 AM, he came back to the library. He stood outside the door and waited until 1AM, when he heard an audible click from the door. For safety reasons, the electronic lock should disengage when the power goes out. He cast the unlocking spell and made his way in, using a light spell to find his way. After that, he only had to get to the back, where the door to the private collection lied. It too was disengaged, but locked mechanically. He tried casting the unlocking spell once more, but even after a couple minutes, it didn't seem to be able to get through. The lock must be sophisticated, either that or it had magical protection. He hadn't considered that, so he cast a detection spell. He was somehow not surprised to see a faint magical aura. The unlocking spell wouldn't do any good – it was time for force.

He shot a fireball at the door. Funnily, despite all the locks, including magical, it was a wooden door, which was consumed quickly. He stepped through the door and into a room, full of shelves. He ignored them for the most part, because in the center was a glass case, inside which a book lay. He removed the glass top, and since both the electric systems had been disabled, he had little fear of tripping an alarm. He looked at the book, bound in leather that was said by some to be human. It was indeed the _Necronomicon_.

"Edgebono yootoosis" he said, casting the duplication spell. He left the duplicate. It wouldn't have the text inside, but it might fool people for a while. Of course, there was still the matter of the door. He cast a mending spell after passing through the archway, fixing it up almost as good as new. Again, it would at least delay people in pursuing him.

Then he strolled out. He opened the door the to library – only to be confronted by three very angry-looking men.


	10. That is not dead

Justin did the first thing that came to mind – he ran. More specifically, he teleported.

"_Transportium next orbitorium_!" he tried, teleporting himself to the first place he could think of – Mars.

He arrived on the surface of the red planet, in a rather random location. He realized that either those guys weren't wizards and wouldn't know where he was, or they were and he would be easily traced. There was no way for him to keep a low profile now. He figured that if they were wizards, the assumption upon which he would operate to be on the safe side, he would have merely minutes before they traced his energy signature. He considered his options. He couldn't really run, because there was no cover around here. They would be able to see him for miles. He couldn't go invisible and then run, because they would surely have the invisibility sight spell handy. He even thought about trying to lay a trap, but couldn't come up with anything that would trump practiced wizards. So he simply waited, prepared for the fight of his life, for about five minutes. After that, he got bored and decided that if they were coming, it wouldn't be right at that moment. It was possible that they weren't wizards and had no idea that magic existed until that point, although clearly someone in the university did. They might be coming after him later, when they could get a real wizard to help them, but by that time his energy signature would probably be dulled.

What he wanted to do now was set up a new base of operations on Mars. The transport spell itself took care of the breathing problem, and he could conjure up food, but what he really wanted was a dwelling of some sort. He decided to use the house-conjuring spell. It would require a great effort and some deal of time, and it was a gross affront to the laws of thermodynamics, but it would be well worth it. The spell would of course only create unfurnished concrete prefabricated buildings, but he could also conjure up the furnishings later.

He drew an outline of the building he wanted in the sandy Martian soil. This was the first step to casting the spell. He stuck to a rectangular shape, and included a 'study', 'bedroom', 'kitchen' and 'bathroom' in his floor plan. One would enter into the study, off of which the doors to the other three rooms lied. When he was satisfied with the basic plan, he drew in a fireplace in the study. This was also possible to add in with the spell, and it would be useful for those cold Martian nights.

With that finished, he next had to trace over every line again, saying the first part of the spell. Over and over he had to repeat it, until he had retraced every mark. Then he stepped back and said the completing phrase. He watched as, upon uttering the final syllable, walls began to grow out of the ground, and then a cement floor began to fill the spaces between. Finally, a ceiling also grew across the walls, and he had himself a small abode. It had a door and three windows, one each of the study, bedroom and kitchen. His next task was to make panes for the windows. He gathered up sand, put it in three small piles, and cast a transmutation spell over it. Justin was lucky that Max had taught him a bit about matter transmuting before they had begun this competition, or this might not have worked. He made sure to make the panes just big enough to fit into the windows, which he placed in and then magically sealed. (Magic makes a fine sealant and is much less messy than caulk.) Then, he stood back and looked at his work. It wasn't much to see, but it was his and he was proud of it. He opened the door (doors are done by the house spell) and went in.

The first thing he did was light a magical fire in the fireplace, and then he conjured up a desk and chair for his study. He them some distance from the fire, and then decided that he really would like to sleep – all this casting made him exhausted. So he went into the bedroom, summoned a small cot and blankets, and went to sleep only after casting multiply redundant wards and shields.

He woke up a few hours later, mostly refreshed. Fresh enough, at least, to begin his study of the _Necronomicon_. He went into his study and sat down at the desk. Despite the minimalism of the room, his chair and desk were quite comfortable. He sat the book down and opened it to the first page, which turned out to be a forward of sorts. The translator felt that some explanation was needed, so they left a guide to reading it. There was a sort of table of contents, or at least a summary of what different sections entailed. Most of them dealt with the summoning or invoking of beastly entities, with which Justin did not want to muck. Nevertheless, that may be the route to true power, so he wasn't going to put it totally aside. He would consider that for later, in a manner of being a last resort. The section he was most interested in was the selection of spells. He flipped to that section, hoping he wouldn't go mad.

Fortunately, Justin did _not _mad merely by perusing the spells, though many of them seemed to cause irrevocable insanity in the caster. He skipped over those for now, and read some of the others. Most of them were complicated and required very specific celestial alignments. There were even spells that, as far as he could tell, could not be cast on Earth. They required a planet's two moons to be in certain alignment, or a planet with a moon with a retrograde orbit, or some other unlikely event. Perhaps he could cast one of them while on Mars, but they also looked to be of the "drive you mad" variety. Still, this suggested that the author had a source other than his own trial and error. Pulling a pen and paper from the desk (his favorite part of the desk spell), he performed some quick calculations to figure out what the stars would be like for the next few days. He also calculated the next time at least 7 of the planets would be aligned – yes, Pluto counts (although science doesn't know this, Pluto _is_ a planet by virtue of its occult powers it has on the solar system. To be fair, so do some planets that science doesn't _know_ of yet, objects beyond the Kuiper Belt and all.) - but it was too long to bother with. This was too bad, there was a spell of particular potency that required such.

There was one spell which, according to the author, would expose the truth of the interconnectedness of the universe to the caster. It relied on the moon being right, but he was in luck, that was a celestial event that occurred frequently. It could only be cast during a new moon, though he wondered about the phases of the moons on Mars. Of course, he could always teleport back to Earth and cast it there. There was one condition: The true knowledge of the universe could very well drive him mad. This was a chance he was willing to take on the route to true power. According to his calculations, the moon would be new in New York City in just a day. He would teleport to Central Park and cast the spell at midnight. In the meantime, he would have to gather the materials required to cast it. It was a macabre shopping list – virgin blood, blood drawn from the caster, (Justin's qualified for both), ground unicorn horn, a live salamander, a live dove, a live rodent of any sort, and a live frog, which all had to be killed, and then a number of other knickknacks that could be purchased at any magic shop worth its salt.

For now though, he felt he had to get started on the list. First, he conjured a bow and quiver of arrows. Tradition dictated that he hunt with a bow. He then teleported back to Earth, to the unicorn reserve in Montana. Although it was illegal, he would hunt down a unicorn himself – that was the only way he could get a unicorn horn. He began to track – their horselike hooves made distinct patterns in the grass, which, after a few minutes of searching, he picked up. He followed it, carefully, slowly.

It lead to a small lake, which Justin assumed would be used by the docile animals as drinking water. He sat behind some conveniently placed bushes and waited, with bated breath (there's no other way to wait), until a group of unicorns came by to drink. He slowly rose out of the bushes, notched an arrow and let it fly. Although he was not extremely well-practiced at it, he managed to injure one, which ran off. Justin cursed, and bounded after it. He chased it through the grassland, until he found another set of bushes, behind which he waited. Eventually the unicorn, noticing it wasn't being followed any longer, stopped running, and lied down. Justin carefully approached, and fired another arrow into its vital area. It bounded off again, and Justin once again ran off after it. He lost sight of it this time, and tracked by its blood. It had run into a small grove of trees, and in a clearing he found it lying down. It was breathing heavily, but still not dead.

"_Gladius," _He said quietly, casting a spell. It summoned a small dagger to his hand – though the spell would produce anything from daggers to dirks to swords, a dagger would suffice. He used it to finish off the unicorn and harvest its horn.

The rest of the list, he harvested in similar fashion, excepting the blood which he would draw from himself at casting time. This took him most of the day. He eventually teleported back to his base on Mars (which he was able to do, having been there before), and slept again. When he awoke, when it was nearing midnight in New York City, he gathered his materials, and teleported to Central Park.

He drew a large circle on a path with his piece of red chalk, one of the materials required. Inside it, he drew the sigils as outlined in the _Necronomicon_. He then placed the rest of the materials, animals in their cages, unicorn horn being ground with pestle and mortar, at various locations on the design.

"_Phn'glui mgah'nafh Cthulhu r'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!"_

He plunged the knife into the salamander.

_"Ia Ia Cthulhu fhtagn!" _

He killed the dove.

"_Hastur hastur hastur"_

He offed the squirrel he had caught.

"_That is not dead which may eternal lie -"_

He killed the frog.

"_And with strange Aeons even death may die."_

He cut himself, drawing the blood for the virgin sacrifice. He then walked to the center of the circle.

"_My God, I can see forever!"_

He cut himself again, this time providing the blood from the caster necessary.

Suddenly, he was filled with knowledge. Knowledge dreadful and chaotic, knowledge powerful and malevolent. Knowledge beyond which man, wizard or mortal, cannot fathom. He sat there, reeling, curled into a ball, contemplating what he now knew.


	11. OH GOD I SEE FOREVER

Well-known fact about mothers – even if they are not wizards, they have a sixth sense in regards to their children. This is why, around 2AM, Theresa woke up. She sat up suddenly in the middle of her bed, and shook Jerry awake.

"Jerry, I have a feeling about our kids!"

"I know you're worried honey, the competition is dangerous."

"I feel as though one of them is close by. Can you do that looking crystal ball thingy again? Do you have any charges on the wand?"

"Yes dear," he said, yawning while getting out of bed. Theresa threw on a bathrobe and followed him downstairs. She hadn't been in the lair too often, but she took no time to look around, too much in a hurry to see what was up. Jerry grabbed the crystal ball and put it on the coffee table, and then got the wand out.

"Which one do you want to try first?" he asked.

"My baby, Max."

"_Demonstre Max!" _The crystal ball showed Max sleeping on a rough mattress in a hut. It didn't look very comfortable to Theresa, but he looked content.

"Try Alex next," Theresa pleaded. The time difference meant it was 6 hours ahead, about 8 AM in Rome. Alex was also still asleep, in a hotel room. She too seemed content and safe.

Jerry knew what he had to do now. "_Demonstre Justin!" _

Theresa screeched. "That's Central Park! And he's just lying there! We have to do something!"

"No, we can't intervene once the competition has started. We have to leave him be."

"But what happened to him?"

"I don't know," he said, barely above a whisper. Theresa began crying, and quietly left the room, back upstairs. Only after that did Jerry get out the board, and moved Justin's peg back, behind Alex's.

* * *

There are all kinds of nutjobs in Central Park, and Justin _was_ alive, just non-responsive. Most people, passing him that day, thought he was just a crazy homeless guy who drew random scribbles and collected random junk.

But he sat there, all day, rocking slightly, true arcane knowledge reeling through his head.

Word speed from alien hierarchies come reaching down from the stars – Great Old Ones lie dead-but-dreaming jungles from forbidden minds going mad purplish color out of space time. Nefarious dreams transit the subways under the cities of the sky. Groundhogs wretch at the verbed nouns before them. Jehovah's cellphone rings off the hook – ia ia Cthulhu fhtagn – forsaken planets rest at the edge of forgotten universes, lying spinning in space wildly out of control. Hurt and hot and further down the well drops the trying foxholes. People tool at the heronious frog-monsters of defeat. An alka-seltzer and bourbon. Spots stained on the carpet of life from death's cats. Integers hold more information than floating points unless its 64 bit. Tasty egg salad sandwiches, dear, I had four. From monstrous routes come the mailmen of the apocalypse, signaling it, the horsemen on vacation. What of the transparent skin? It's naught but a fairy-story, this life we've been told. Not that this was un-understandable given the bloody dismount of the grand prix of the director's Kentucky Derby, wearing the hat of an advisor gives one the authority to distraught the psychosomatic response of red hot iron being hammered by a blind god in an occult volcano. Responses coming back from expounded retained lawyers, despite the glee club's assault on the purple toaster. Universes collapsing into tiny pinheads upon which the number of angels that dance is numbered with sorting algorithms. What goes up must make a plop. Respite riposte parry the parallel pygmies picked properly by the pickled peppers who pied the paid piper particularly poxed upon pale problems pent up percents prepare precise pretty pixies painting piled picks patrolling popping people puppies periodically punched pain pecks peeps just a pinprick Peter. Gas nozzles feeding the CORPORATION in capital letters, beyond the stars and behind the sun. Sunday is a good day to rest but if you're a chicken you're dinner. Goodness knows that the galaxies are arranged by allying energies from who knows where. Hate is nothing but love on a bad day. Purple walruses expunge the Pope. From Elvis with love. He WAS abducted by aliens, those which tie up kittens for fun and created crystal meth. The US government knows about as much as it claims, especially about aliens .Nicknames are often meaningless, but people have them anyway. It's a tasty little red dress, accentuating the proper curves, worn by a Playboy model selling herself for the experiments of consumerism. It feeds the machine. The machine eats beyond that which it can have the big gulp of the sexy goth girl in the perkiest youtube video ever. Connections between the starving stomaches of crayons on the ground. A nervous breakdown is no reason to cry. Something big and foreign and not understandable beyond that which mortal kens comprehend daily. Deeming E.E. Cummings bad. Buddies family recent wizards open the office doors to vigor. This quark and that quark get together and form string cheese. The whole universe made of string cheese. It is easily pulled away. And eaten, like the machine which rationalizes the radishes. Radicals equal the square root of two. If you add the last digit of pi, you get the answer to life, the universe and everything. God is dead, long live God. Nietzsche had nothing. Abraham sent a burnt offering of his son to YHVH. The tetragrammon telecommutes to Paris and back. Decent people destroy what's left of life by accident. Swords, guns, and worse. The printing press. The aliens who invented it. Hedonism runs rampant peanut butter and jelly. Nickel-plated gold passed off as dimes. I let alone sleeping dragons. Don't cry into the blood dammit. Slightly sensual denim covered black notebooks unanimously voted to be new hotdogs rolled in garnished vinegar and late snappy peas. Hunky dory all day declaring divine jurisdictions. Nick nick, new tall. Wetsuits divide those from freshwater and saltwater. Overdosing on morphine causing much panic among pursuing pineapples. Sharp or dull? Everyone is dull compared to the vile arcane secrets known by the beings which you cannot fathom. The truth is insignificant. You are a bug to be eaten. A glance, a look, a smile, all speak more than words. But it hardly matters. It all doesn't matter, it all doesn't matter...

This is not what went through his head, but it's an approximation (and not even a very close one) to the kind of madness he experienced. Most of it was much more maddening, much worse, much more profound, but is unable to be explained to mortal minds.

Eventually, and amazingly, Justin stood up. He blinked slowly, gathered up his things, and teleported back to Mars. He put down his copy of the _Necronomicon_, and went and slept again. Wild, horrific and nightmarish dreams raced through his head during his entire R.E.M cycle, and indeed beyond that. For when one messes with That Which Man Was Not Meant To Know, usual science falls aside like a card house in a hurricane. Despite this, he awoke calmly, and laid there for some time before getting up, considering his dreams and what his subconscious was revealing to him about life, the universe, and everything. His thinking was beginning to change from human thinking to something transcending that. Human thinking was 4-dimensional, and straightforward. It involved cause and effect, and effect following from cause. Transcending that meant that there could be effects without cause and causes that have no effect, nor does it have to follow in the usual order. Something can cause itself – it sounds silly but it's true and makes perfect sense when you shed usual logic. There was not just and, or, not. Two plus two equals spoon. Language was a _barrier_ to thought; thinking occurred in _qualia _that describe everything. But much more sophisticated qualia, for surely they predated language. Certainly science argues about the very existence of qualia, but they are futile. Both sides are, as they will never be able to explain consciousness by continuing to think with brains. Justin realized what had happened during the spell. His oversoul had been awakened, and he was now quite transcendent of humanity.

Although he had never been mortal, he was now even more than a wizard. He was a transcended human, as his chakra (to use an analogy) had been opened. (Though indeed, even the idea of chakras is incorrect!) Imagine it like this: you're moving along in absolute darkness, but you can only move two dimensions. And then a light turns on, and you realize that there are _more _dimensions, and you can travel them all. It was like this, except with knowledge. He had been confined to two-dimensional thinking, but was now opened up to much more complex thinking. He could see forever. He could see the connectedness of all things, how every molecule affects every other.

He knew what he had to do now. With his expanded mind, the defeat of his little brother should be simple. Yet he realized it wouldn't be – despite his nigh infinite occult and arcane knowledge, Max was becoming extremely powerful. He wouldn't underestimate his opponent, and he knew that _despite_ Alex's bequest that they finish this competition without violence that neither Max _nor_ he would settle for that now. They were both too knowledgeable, too powerful to let that happen. He knew that he would have to kill Max, or die trying.

This didn't bother him anymore. He knew, with his vast truth, that Max was insignificant – as was he, but it only meant that whatever they did didn't matter. Besides which, he knew what kind of wizard Max was, and he knew that this kind of wizard does not let others stand in his way and will go to any length to take out his opponents.

So he would have to kill Max. It was as simple as that.


	12. The Battle

Without another thought, Justin teleported to Max's location, right in front of the hut. A fireball went off, but Justin cast a bubble shield, protecting him from the impact and the heat. Max rushed out, expecting to see Justin standing there, and seeing precisely what he expected. They looked at each other for a long second.

"It's you. I've been expecting you," Max said calmly, as though Justin were a visitor for tea.

"Sorry if I'm late, but I wanted to bring you a gift."

"Well let's see it then."

Wihtout warning Justin shot out his hand, and fire flew from his fingertips. Max nonchalantly held up his own hand, forming an energy shield which blocked the flames, quite easily.

"Sorry big bro, you'll have to do better than that." With that, Max lifted off of the ground and began to hover in the middle of the air. He raised his arms, and from the graveyard behind his hut, the decaying bodies and skeletons of the dead rose from their graves with shield and spear in hand, and began to approach Justin. Justin was slightly more shocked than he felt he should have been by this. Even though he knew that Max had become extremely powerful and rather relentless, he hadn't expected him to practice the arts of necromancy.

The undead circled around Justin, and he threw them back with a blast of force, knocking them over and destroying some of the more decayed ones. Justin too, flew into the air, and threw a fireball beneath him, destroying the approaching army of undead.

"What, you think you're the only one that can fly?" Justin said, looking at his brother who was also in the air. Max headed for the treetops, and Justin followed him.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Rome, Alex felt a tingling sensation that could only be coming from that combination of blood relation and wizard senses, that said something was up with her brothers. She immediately snuck off to someplace she would scry on them and pulled out her crystal ball.

"_Demonstre Max!" _The crystal ball showed her Max, hovering above the canopy in the Amazon jungle, flinging spells at an opponent. Looking closer, she saw that this opponent was her other brother, Justin. "Oh _shit_" she muttered, and teleported to the location.

She appeared on the ground, and not knowing the flying spell, she began to climb up a tree. She _was_ a good tree-climber, and the thick foliage of the jungle allowed her to get up to the canopy line. She stood up, on the treetops, and cried

"STOP!"

Justin and Max both looked at her for a brief second, and then with a wave of his hand, Max trapped her in a cage of pure energy. With his other hand, he diverted a lightning bolt that Justin had sent at him.

"Quiet, sister. This is no business of yours – I'll deal with you once I've destroyed Justin," he said, without missing a beat. Alex wasn't sure who to root for in this macabre fight of sibling rivalry.

"Justin! Do something about it!" Alex cried again, tears welling in her eyes. "This isn't how it's supposed to be!"

Justin dodged a ray of energy that would do who-knows-what if it hit him, and then spoke to Alex.

"I must kill Max before he kills me! Don't you see?"

Max reached out, with a slight movement of his hand, and attempted his heart-stopping spell. Justin resisted it, having enough magical protection that he wouldn't be able to be affected easily. Just as Max began to cast another spell, Justin cast a counterspell, and then followed it up with a draining spell, which seemed to affect Max. He reeled, noticing breaks in his own magical shielding, which he rushed to repair. During this time, Justin had reinforced his own protections and hit Max with a mental blast, which Max resisted easily.

Meanwhile, Alex was casting spells at her cage. She had tried dispelling it, but Max's spell was more powerful than she was able to overcome, apparently. She began to wear it down with small bursts of flame.

Max didn't even notice this, he was busy. He had opened a gate to the elemental plane of fire behind Justin, which was beginning to overheat him. Justin turned around and began to close it, when Max caused the flames to leap out of it. Reacting quickly, Justin dodged the brunt of the attack but still got singed. He flew towards Max at lightning speed, getting away from the flames. He was going to move the center of the battle, if he could help it.

Alex was still attacking the energy cage, this time with bolts of her own energy. It began to weaken and crack, and she felt she would be out of it soon.

Justin grabbed at Max, but Max dodged out of the way and Justin flew back a few hundred yards before he was able to stop and turn around. He waved his arms dramatically and a gate opened in front of Max – out of it flew a large dragon, which opened its mouth and breathed fire at the younger wizard. Max also managed to dodge this attack, suffering only minor burns. He summoned a large axe – it dropped from out of the sky and chopped the dragon's head off. The serpent disappeared with a poof, and the axe fell to the forest floor, chopping up foliage as it went. Max tried the trick again, this time summoning the axe over Justin's head, but Justin noticed in time, flew out of the way and redirected the axe toward Max, who gestured at it calmly, and it disappeared.

He then began to whirl his arms around over his head, and above him storm clouds grew in the sky. Justin used the opportunity to cast various curses – stunning, blindness, even the itching curse, but Max resisted them all. Soon there was a storm overhead, and Max called down lightning, which was absorbed by Justin's shield.

By now, Alex was out of her cage, and she looked up at the battle going on above her, unsure of what she could do. "STOP!" she cried again, but was drowned out by thunder as rain began to pour.

Justin created illusionary duplicates of himself, and made them all fly around in a jumble so that Max couldn't tell them apart. Max summoned a swarm of arrows, which flew at Justin and his duplicates – when they hit an illusion, it disappeared, and the one that hit the real Justin glanced off, doing no harm.

Justin took the chance while he was summoning the arrow to try and wear down Max's own shield, and being much stronger than Alex at this point, it was not too powerful for him to dispel. Max noticed it immediately and began to repair it, but not before he was struck by a lightning bolt himself, called down by Justin.

"No fair using my storm against me!" Max cried, magically amplifying his voice to be heard in the storm. He wasn't _too _badly injured, and he healed himself from it quickly. Justin grunted, and summoned a swarm of wasps in front of Max, who took them out by hitting them with flames from his hands. And then he turned his attention to Justin's own shielding, and began to wear that down. He easily overpowered it, and it was completely down within a second. He hit Justin with a fatigue spell, who was clearly adversely affected by it. He began to droop, but cast an invigoration spell on himself to counter the fatigue. He then tried to dispel Max's flying spell, but Max felt this happening and countered it. He thought this was a good idea, so he tried to dispel Justin's own flying spell, but Justin also countered it.

Suddenly, Max was hit from behind by a bolt of lightning. He had been watching Justin at the time, so he knew it wasn't from him. He turned around and looked down to see Alex out of her cage.

"Get out of this!" he yelled, creating another cage around her. She tried to dodge it, but the cage was too large, and she was stuck again. "This is a battle for _real_ wizards," he said mockingly. Alex was hurt by this, but she couldn't argue that both Justin and Max were extraordinarily more powerful than she was.

"_Detect scrying," _Alex cast from her cage, wondering if anyone had noticed this energy spike and was watching the fight. She detected no less than 300 scrying sensors viewing the surrounding area.

* * *

Jerry was one of the 300 people watching the battle take place. He watched it on his crystal ball, tense and frustrated. No matter who won this, it would not be good for him _or _Theresa. She would be particularly upset, so he refrained from telling her that her two sons were currently engaged in an epic battle that would result in at least one of their deaths. And goodness knows what the winner would have in store for Alex, either. Still, he was surprised that Justin had not only recovered from the spell he had cast earlier, but it had made him all the more powerful. He and Max were currently tied on the peg board, with Alex trailing far behind.

Alex crossed her arms and pouted, trying to remember the voice amplifying spell. Oh yes...

"_VOX DRACONIS!" _she yelled, and her voice was amplified loud enough to be heard over the wind, rain and thunder.

"STOP THIS THIS INSTANT YOU TWO!" she yelled. "I thought we agreed not to kill each other! We promised mom!"

"Mother..." Max said, through gritted teeth as he took a force blast from Justin. "Is... MORTAL!" he cried, unleashing a ray of energy that hit Justin and cut his right cheek. Justin recouped and launched an attack back at Max.

"Justin! Stop this! Be the mature, responsible one, like usual!" Alex cried, pleading with her older brother.

"And what? Let him kill me?"

"No! Forfeit! I'll forfeit too!" she yelled, tears in her eyes and streaming down her face. (Jerry too, was crying at this.)

"He's too powerful! He needs to be...defeated!" he yelled back, unleashing a storm of fire from his hands that threatened to consume Max. Max dodged out of the way of most of the flames, and fired back an attack of hailstones, which pelted Justin and threw him back. (Jerry, watching at home, though he wasn't sure enough to change the pegs, felt that Justin was a little bit behind. He was being worn down.)

Suddenly, Max hit Justin with a mental blast. Justin gripped his head hard, the pain searing through him. He clearly didn't possess Max's willpower. While distracted, Max dispelled his flying spell, and Justin fell down through the trees.

"NO!" Alex yelled, upset at Justin's fall. She crawled down, out of the cage – Max had seemingly forgotten to enclose the bottom, and Alex had just noticed this. She climbed down, through the trees, until she could see what transpired below.

Justin smacked into the ground, still alive, but hurting and with a horrible headache. Although he was scratched up from all the branches he hit on his way down, he was aware that they probably slowed his fall enough to keep him alive. Max calmly flew down, over him, and laughed evilly as Justin writhed. Head pounding furiously, Justin used what he felt was his last bit of effort to pick up a spear, discarded from one of the undead minions that Max had raised, and hurled it toward his little brother. Then he collapsed. He came to within a matter of seconds, head no longer hurting. He looked up to see why.

Max lied on the ground, spear through his chest, breathing heavily.

"_Gladius," _Justin said, and produced a dagger. He went over to Max, slit his throat and stabbed his heart.

Alex, who was watching this, screamed.

"You killed our brother!"

"He was going to kill me!"

"He was defeated, you should have helped him!"

"He wouldn't have forfeited, he'd never give up! You don't think he would have killed me?"

"You _killed_ our brother! _Gladius!_" she was now holding a long sword in both hands, wielding it much more proficiently than Justin would have guessed. She came at Justin, who backed away.

"_Gladius!"_ Justin now held his own sword. He parried, and tried to calm her down. "If I hadn't done that he'd have gotten up and finished _me_ off. I'm in a pretty bad state right now."

He pushed her back with a telekinetic blast, but she rolled with it and sprang up. She feinted left, Justin went to parry and she came right, but Justin noticed at the last second he had, stepped back and parried right.

"We can have our own non-lethal fight now that Max is gone!" he cried between blows.

"You _KILLED _our brother!" she repeated again angrily.

"Then so be it," he said, and parried again. This time he made his own strike, trying to get past her defenses. Finding no opening, he jumped over her, rolling in the air, and landed behind her. To his surprise, she was already turned around.

"I've seen _Star Wars _too," she said calmly, whirling around to strike at Justin's side. He parried.

"Then you'd expect this!" he said, extending his hand and shooting lightning out of it. It struck Alex and she convulsed, but still managed to erect a shield against it.

"Oh big brother, you think I have learned _nothing_ about magical combat this whole time? You haven't been scrying on me in the past few days, have you? Face it, you have no record of my whereabouts."

Justin flew into the air, but Alex launched a lightning bolt at him. It snaked along her blade and came out of it. It struck him and he fell back to the ground. He was up before Alex could make it over, and met her sword again.

"This is silly," he said, still locked in swordplay with his sister. "I'm clearly the better wizard – forfeit and I let you live."

"You killed our brother! I'm not going to let you get away with that!"

"Our brother was _evil!_"

"But he was still our brother!" She made another feint, which Justin was not fooled by.

"You're lucky, you know. I'm quite drained from that battle with Max. Or else I might do something like _this_." He stepped back and launched a fireball from his hand, Alex tumbled underneath it and slashed at his legs, catching them and making him bleed. Justin sprung backwards and cut a branch above him, which fell in between him and Alex. Alex hit it with flames and hacked it away, but Justin was still retreating backwards.

"Where are you going? I'm not dead yet!" she said mockingly.

"I don't want to kill you! You're not evil. Irresponsible yes, but not evil."

"You know what, I think _you're _evil!" she said. Justin had lost sight of her, and then suddenly she was on all sides of him. He swung around wildly, feeling a cut in his back, until he caught a blade.

"Tricky one," he said, recovering. He feinted right and went left, and then cut her near her rib. She quickly recovered, stepping back and parrying his sword.

She then creating a brilliant bright light, temporarily blinding Justin. She went to attack, but Justin parried by feel. He then launched into the sky again, this time erecting a lightning ward.

Alex turned her sword into a bow, arrow already notched, and drew back on it. It struck Justin, who looked shocked.

"Are you really willing to kill me for vengeance? One brother died, why two?"

"Because you're evil," she said simply.

Justin conjured a rain of hailstones to fall on Alex, but she ran out of their radius and fired another arrow. Justin dodged this one.

"Without the fly spell, you're never going to win," he said. She launched a fireball at him, but he dodged this too. "I see you _do _know that one!"

She then tried to dispel the flying spell once more. Justin tried to resist, but the drain from the previous fight with Max proved to be too great, and he fell out of the sky. He braced himself, though, and rolled on impact, springing up with sword in hand. Alex had turned her own weapon back into a sword, and attacked with it. Justin parried again, easily.

"It seems you are intent on settling this via swordplay."

Alex didn't respond, but continued her furious assault. Justin cast the animation spell on his sword, and conjured another one. The original continued to parry Alex, while he tried to get around the other side. Alex, meanwhile, managed to fend them both off, and dispelled the animation. The sword clattered to the forest floor, and then disappeared.

"Conjured swords rarely last that long," Justin sighed.

Alex caused the plants at Justin's feet to grow, curling up around his ankles. He stumbled, and then hacked them off. Meanwhile Alex used the time to get into position, and sliced at his chest, cutting his shirt and drawing blood. Justin forced her sword away and began to attack back.

"I'm going to have to stop holding back, you know," Justin said, and disappeared. As Alex looked around, she felt something sharp in her back, and Justin drew blood. She ran forward, turning around as she did so, and saw Justin in front of her. She slashed again at his legs, but he jumped into the air and slashed at her as well.

"You didn't even try to reason with him!" she yelled at Justin as they continued to fight. Slash, parry, parry, feint, slash.

"I knew him better than you! I knew what he was capable of! That kind of person won't stand to reason!"

"And I've seen what you're capable of. How do I know you would let me live?"

"You're the one that's not listening to reason!" Alex was angered by this. She didn't know how, but she telekinetically blasted Justin back. Justin, not being prepared for this, hit the ground. Suddenly, Alex was over him, with her sword at his heart.

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't kill you here."

"Because... I love you."

"You should have loved Max," she said, driving her sword down into his heart.

* * *

**A.N: That is the end of Part I. Hope you enjoyed it. **


	13. Part II New Beginnings

Justin's body lay on the ground, convulsing. Alex watched him die as he looked up with pleading eyes. Then the fire in them died out and was replaced by death's clout. Alex's own eyes welled with tears as she came to face all her fears.

She inflated her cheeks with air, and then blew out. She looked at the jungle around her, buzzing slightly with insect life. It was damp, hot and oppressive.

"_Mcreeri timereeri" she said. Time rewound itself back to just before she had killed Justin; she was still holding her sword over him. _

"Now forfeit and I show you the mercy that you didn't show Max."

Justin looked up at her, confused. "Why did you do that?"

"To prove that I could. Now forfeit, or I do it again, and again. Was dying pleasant?"

"_Undying was worse. OK, OK, I'll forfeit. Forisfacio." _

A sparkle of energy left Justin's body and drained into Alex's. His magical power, now given up to his sister. It crackled with arcane energy, and she felt extremely powerful. She knelt down next to Justin.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Stay still, it'll hurt less," she said, placing her hands on his chest. She closed her eyes and concentrated on channeling healing energy into him. His wounds closed shut, bruises healed and breaks mended. Then she stood up and extended a hand, which Justin took, and let himself be helped up by her.

"Thanks," he said.

"I'm still not sure I should have done that. You killed Max. I ought to leave you here!" Alex inhaled sharply and paused for a second. "On the other hand, I'm not sure what the rules say I need to do. I'm going to take you to dad."

She grabbed Justin's arm and they blinked away.

* * *

It was somber in the Russo household. Theresa barely spoke, and when she did it was always in a strained, stressed voice and often in Spanish. Neither of them expected it when the doorbell rang. Jerry walked over and opened the door to find his two eldest children standing there.

"Justin! Alex!" he said in a low but clearly surprised voice. "Come in."

"Dad I - " Justin began, before even walking in.

"- had to kill Max?" Jerry finished for him. "I saw on the crystal ball... it's an unfortunate consequence of The Competition." He was still clearly trying to deal with it, but certainly didn't blame Justin.

Alex and Justin walked in and sat down on their couch, sighing. Theresa came from downstairs and saw them.

"Alex!" she cried, seeing her and running down the steps. Alex stood up and let her mother hug her. "I'm so glad you're OK!" she said, almost crying.

After the embrace, she glanced at Justin, and sighed, then went back upstairs, on the brink of tears.

"Your mother still hasn't really forgiven you for killing Max," Jerry explained, sadly.

"But he was trying to kill me!" Justin protested.

"I know. I hope she sees that. Max died a long time ago. The person you killed was not him. I don't know who it was, but I know what. He was a Sorcerer."

"What's a Sorcerer?" Alex said, curious despite the gloomy circumstances.

"There are three different kinds of magic users," Jerry explained. "Wizards, like you and me – well, like I used to be, you know – Sorcerers, and Mortal Ritualists. Wizards are born with an innate knack for magic. Although it still requires training and practice, they are skilled and magic is easy for them. Mortal Ritualists, on the other hand, are merely mortals who study magic. They can eventually learn rather complicated rituals that have subtle, but far-reaching effects." He paused here.

"What about Sorcerers?" Alex pressed.

"Sorcerers are the most powerful entities in the magic world. They are not Wizards, even though they resemble extremely powerful ones. Sorcerers tap directly into the energy of the universe, and their powers can not be taken away in the same way that you can drain a wizard. Their magic tends not to be subtle at all."

"If they're so powerful, how did I defeat Max?" Justin asked.

"I don't know... a fluke, I suppose. Mostly it was Max being overconfident, a common trait in Sorcerers. I wish I had known earlier, I could have prepared him for such power. But I don't think even he knew until recently."

"I certainly didn't expect it," Alex said, her meek voice barely coming through.

"None of us did," Jerry said, shaking his head slowly. He cleared his throat.

"But there are more practical matters to attend to. Alex has won the Competition, this much is apparent. And I'm glad she gave Justin a reprieve," Jerry continued, looking at Justin. "But I have to ask Justin what he intends to do now."

Justin sighed and shrugged. "I thought I would go to college, majoring in Business Administration, and help you run the Sub Station."

Jerry nodded. "Good, good. That's a very responsible plan, and I'll be glad to have you. Though, it may be difficult for your mother to take."

"That's a good point. Well, maybe I'll live somewhere else for a while... I dunno though, this is all so much to take in."

"I know son, I know. I'll try to talk to your mother tonight. I think I can convince her that what happened was necessary. But tell me, Justin...do you miss magic?"

He paused, and considered it for a bit.

"I would have thought that I wouldn't miss it," Justin began. "I thought I prepared myself for a life without it, such that if I lost, as is the case, I would be ready. I thought that I might miss it, a bit, after living without it a while. Nostalgia, mostly.

"But I was wrong," the young ex-wizard continued. "I already miss it. It's like a vitality, an energy, has escaped me. I feel a void welling up inside me, threatening to consume my comparatively mortal will and destroy me. I don't know how mortals live without it!"

"Don't worry, the feelings you're having now are more akin to a drug withdrawal than a lack of magic. Although the feeling of emptiness never entirely goes away, it becomes bearable, although some former wizards tend to over-eat to try and fill it. It helps a bit, I suppose," Jerry said, smiling and patting his beer belly. "But there is another option. You can study Ritualism. Although you never regain the same feeling of power, you can emulate it for a time while you're casting spells. I do caution you concerning this - it makes magic even more like a drug, and you can become addicted to it."

Jerry turned to Alex, and saw that there were tears running down her cheeks. As she cried silently, neither Justin nor Jerry had noticed until now, and neither of them had seen her cry very often before. She wasn't prone to bouts of sadness and in fact, she rarely ever even got upset.

"Alex? Are you going to be OK?" Jerry said as he laid a gentle yet firm hand on her shoulder.

"I...it's just... it's happening so fast! Max is dead, mom hates Justin, Justin isn't a wizard. What am I going to do now anyway, huh? I mean, we had all these plans for if we _lost _the competition, but I don't know what to do now!"

Jerry gave a low, dry chuckle. "Alex honey, you're still barely 17 years old! You planned on college, right?"

Alex sniffed. "Mm-hmm."

"Well you can still do that. You're still our daughter, too. It's not like we're going to push you out in the cold."

Alex put her arms around her father, and though she was still crying, she was also clearly at least somewhat reassured.


	14. Recovery

Max's body was being carried back into the village by the former medicine man and other admirers.

"This man spared me my life one day," said the medicine man. "And I know that it may be forbidden, but a powerful ritual handed down, generation to generation, may now be able to bring him back from the land of the dead."

Androcas, such being the medicine man's name, set Max's body on a raised stone. He began the gruesome act of rending the dead flesh from his bone with a stone knife and discarding it on the jungle floor. He removed the brains through his nose using a hook-life device such that the Egyptians used, and placed that in an earthen jar. He cut open the chest and tore out the heart and put that in the jar as well. The rest of the organs were thrown away with the flesh, blood and muscle.

It was long work to remove all the meat, and even then the bones couldn't be picked clean. For that purpose he carried the body to a spot where he knew there was an ant's nest, and left it there for the remains to be eaten.

Meanwhile, he set about preparing the brains and heart. They were a necessary focus of the ritual. He mixed them together in the jar, adding special plants, many of which were absolutely poisonous. This mixture was ground to a fine liquid and used to draw the ancient sigils passed down from his distant spiritual ancestors, which were inscribed on the stone altar and on the ground around it.

About three feet, diagonally out from each edge of the altar, a tall torch was placed in the ground. In these, Androcas burned incenses, and then took another quantity of burning incense in a bowl and walked around the area of the altar, with each step intoning one of the arcane syllables of power from the dawn of the universe.

Then Max's skeleton was brought back and placed on the altar. Next, Androcas dropped to the ground and sat in a cross-legged position, not moving. He remained there for hours, completely motionless, and it was anyone's guess what psychic strain he was under.

At sunset, he stood up, held a stone dagger to the sky and said, in a voice of thunder and an ancient language:

_Spirits of the ancients, worthy ancestors, guide this soul back to the land of the living, and let not Hell have it!_

He pricked his finger with the implement and let a drop of blood fall on Max's skeleton. Three more sigils he traced, this time in the air over the altar and the remains. Each one was pushed away by the dagger, and each punctuated with a word no one within earshot knew. But the last syllable, everyone knew.

"MAX!"

"Morning," Alex said quietly as she came down the stairs in her pajamas the next day. Justin was already downstairs, sitting at the island and watching a crystal ball with his father. Although Theresa still wasn't talking to her eldest child, she had let him stay there at Jerry's insistence. Even she had to admit that he was still her son and not yet independent.

"Mana storms in South America have been linked to the Competition between three wizards who came of age recently," someone on the crystal ball was saying. Apparently their fight had caused a bit more of a fuss than normal, which, if what Jerry had said was as grave as he'd implied, wasn't surprising given that there was a Sorcerer involved.

"Dad," Alex said inquisitively. "Does everyone know that Max was a Sorcerer?"

"If anyone suspects, I haven't heard of it," Jerry said. "I think it would be best to keep that a secret for now. Plus, I might have been wrong." He shrugged. "It's not unheard of that these things create minor fluctuations in the mana climate."

"...largest mana storm of this type since..."

"Minor fluctuations," Jerry continued, speaking over the crystal ball. "Oh would you turn that off?"

Justin obliged, turning off the crystal ball just as Theresa came downstairs. Her eyes were puffy, as though she had been crying. This was likely the case.

"_Ay, mi hijo!" Theresa said, running to Justin and hugging him, crying anew. "I did a lot of thinking last night, and I hadn't thought about how hard it must have been for you." She showered him with kisses and caresses while going on. "That was the most grown-up decision you had to make, in a manner. Your little, baby brother was trying to murder you! Ay! Forgive me!"_

_Justin couldn't speak, but he hugged his mother back and she knew that he forgave her, too. Alex and Jerry looked on, smiling but tearing up slightly as well. They would get through this – though a new era for the Russos had dawned, they could tell that the light on the horizon was a warm glow that would bring peace and prosperity to the family._


	15. What have I become?

Max woke up, feeling not exactly cold, but not exactly warm either. He wasn't precisely numb, but he didn't feel anything. Actually, this was this strangest non-feeling feeling in the world. Nothing felt quite familiar – he didn't feel the weight of his body, didn't taste his saliva, didn't feel his breathing. He was aware of a pressure on his back, as though he were lying on something, but he didn't feel it. He just knew, intuitively, as though the information from his nerves was just known and not translated into that "feeling" sense the brain is fond of.

His eyes were yet closed, although they didn't feel closed. He just knew that he wasn't seeing anything, so he opened them to see the jungle up above him. The jungle at daybreak, quite a lovely sight. At least this much he could still tell.

Next he tried to remember what had happened. He seemed to recall Justin about to kill him. Maybe he'd been left for dead here, and he actually wasn't? That would be good, it would give him the advantage of surprise with which to enact his swift and sweet justice. Not only would Justin and Alex have to pay, but their families too.

He then recalled that their family was also his family. He felt as though he should feel remorse at considering killing his own family members, but he didn't. This was enough to disturb him.

Vague recollections from after Justin had dealt his blow began to come back to him. There was a pit, and there was the screaming of many souls in a spiraling agony, all journeying somewhere. It was darkness with flashes of monstrous entities and worlds beyond the known stars. Suddenly he bolted up. It occurred to him that he had died.

He looked at his hand, somehow not surprised to find that it was fleshless, just the skeleton of the hand. But if he were dead, why did he still seem to be in the jungle? He stood up and checked the rest of his body. Yep, all skeleton. A kind of dark grey colored one, not without its own scratches and marks of damage.

There was one feeling he still felt. One that he had known ever since he could remember. A flick of the wrist igniting a flame on his finger showed him that he was right – he could still do magic.

"By God, it worked," Androcas said, suddenly seeing Max from his prostrated position. "Max – you are alive once more."

"Yes..." Max said slowly, trying out his raspy new voice. "A form that cannot be destroyed, I take it?"

Androcas nodded. "So long as your soul is not destroyed, you will be able to reform this body. Immortal, still able to do magic! All you could want. Please, our tribe needs your gifts – with you, we never need suffer want, need, disease or pain again."

"Gifts, yes," Max said. "Let me give you _all_ a gift."

He raised his arms to the sky, and then brought them down silently but swiftly. As he did so, concussive force emanated from him, spreading out in all directions. It knocked Androcas backwards and began to rend the flesh off of his bone. The shockwave spread in the direction of the village as well, and from all of the villagers there was the screaming of horrifying pain, pain not released by death but made all the worse for it. The power surge also destroyed the village and most of the foliage around it. But when all was done, the tribe members, in various states of advanced rot and decay, most of them but skeletal, stood up, looking at themselves in abject and silent horror. They would have sobbed if they could.

"Now we are all immortal," Max said evenly. "The better to wreak my vengeance."

* * *

Meanwhile, Alex, Justin and Theresa were upstairs, working their shifts in the sub shop while Jerry was on break. He took the chance to check on the situation of the mana storm. It could seriously disturb the fabric of magical power if it grew too much, much like a mundane hurricane can cause damage. But it wasn't a perfect analogy, and other considerations regarding the mana storm involved psychic troubles, even to mortals.

Fortunately, the mana weather wizards were optimistic that it was just a passing storm. According to them, it was already beginning to dissipate at the usual rate for these kinds of storms. He waved off the crystal ball and turned to one of the shelves of dusty magic tomes. There was a certain section on a certain shelf that he had never needed to show his kids before, but now he needed to share with Justin. This was the shelf of books about Mortal Ritualism.

He took out one old work and blew the dust off of it. _A Primer on Magickal Workings_ was its title. The first page had, in large letters "Caution! This is not a book that teaches you how to do magick. This is a book that teaches you how to teach yourself to do magick. It contains references to and notes on many other works, which are invaluable to the private researcher. The complete bibliography, insomuch as it is necessary for this work to be of use to you, appears on the next page." Jerry turned to this page and began reading the list of texts, piling up the ones he had from his shelf.

Then he went upstairs and talked to Justin.

"Hey Justin, why don't you take your break now?" Jerry said, putting on an apron. "I'll take over. If you're interested, there are books on ritualism down there."

"Thanks dad," Justin said, mimicking Jerry's actions in reverse by taking off his own apron and heading downstairs. There he found the texts laid out, just as his father had said they would be. Justin was the sort of person who would do a lot of reading before ever trying something, so the books weren't too dangerous in his hands.

At least, most books weren't. He hadn't forgotten that he had read from the Necronomicon, and this ancient text of madness still seethed within him. It began to bubble up to the surface as he read the primer on magic, and he recalled the rituals within Al-Hazred's book, needing not to read it again, for it had been seared into his mind like a cattle-brand.

He shook his head violently. Such power was a last ditch effort. He began to read the comparatively sane text before him. It began with a theoretical background that Justin found he knew most of, but he made sure to pay extra attention to the details, because any differences would be more important to heed to as he followed the lesson plans within.

It was broken into a number of different lessons, beginning with works dealing with theory, then going on to cite books detailing the most basic sorts of rituals, more of meta-rituals, simple invocations or evocations meant chiefly to teach the practitioner how to perform rituals. There were extensive notes in the primary book about these, and discussed how mastering them was an important step in beginning one's magical working. The next referenced works, often in the same books as the previous, were simple wards.

It was all extremely different from what Justin had been used to, of course. But such was the price one paid.


	16. Strange Company

The next day at school, Alex sought out TJ Taylor. Despite a severe dislike of him, he was one of few people with whom she could confide – someone who knew the pains and problems of being a wizard. Perhaps she could get to some level of humanity underneath his exterior chitin of forced callousness. She found him in the hall between third and fourth periods.

"TJ," she said, almost reluctantly. "I need someone to talk to."

"I'll show you someone to talk to," he replied, almost automatically.

Alex ignored him. "I won the competition, but it's not all that's cracked up to be, I mean, being an only child wizard you don't have to go through that, but you know, it's just, a lot of pressure given, and, what with Max dying and -" Alex blurted out, unable to completely form a coherent sentence. TJ looked at her with wide eyes.

"Competition?" He said, scrunching up his brow. "Wha- Oh! The wizard competition between your siblings. Yes, you won? Good job."

"TJ! You're not listening," Alex protested.

"I'll show you-" TJ was about to say when Alex cut him off.

"I mean, my own older brother had to _kill_ my little brother. It was barbaric! I thought we were past this – but it's such an old wizarding tradition. And what's worse is that he had no choice, I mean, I was upset with him, though not as upset as my mom was with him. I just... need someone's shoulder to cry on," Alex said, literally collapsing into his shoulder, as TJ embraced her, mumbling "I'll show you someone's shoulder."

A little while later, Justin was coming back to the Sub Station when, walking down Waverly Place, he saw Alex and TJ holding hands. He started, and then he approached Alex.

"Alex, may I have a word?"

Alex turned to TJ and gave him a little kiss. "Be right back," she said.

Once out of TJ's hearing, Justin spoke to Alex. "What are you _doing_? TJ Taylor is a terrible person! I mean if he were just annoying, it'd be one thing, but need I remind you that he mentally dominated his parents, and ours too!"

"Well yeah, but he's reformed now. I mean he even performed a good service for the wizard council and all."

"What was that service?"

"He designed a new spell, he said."

"Oh... hmm, well that is usually a good service. What kind of spell?"

"Oh I don't know," Alex said, clearly wanting to get out of the conversation quickly. "A good spell." She blew some hair out of her eyes.

"How'd it even happen, anyway? I mean, you two getting together."

"He was there for me, I mean I couldn't talk to anyone else about it," Alex said hastily, as though defending their relationship. "He's not too terrible once you get to know him."

"Know him? How long have you been going out?"

"Well, um, about four hours. I know, I know! Sheesh, don't worry, I'll take it slow."

"Your life I suppose," Justin said, waving a hand vaguely and leaving. Alex pouted and went back to TJ.

"You look cute when you pout," TJ said. Alex smiled slightly.

Max the Lich was planning his next move. He sat in the old headman's hut, which he had taken over as a sort of center of command. He had to get his priorities in order, and he had to realize his limitations this time. That was his only downfall when he lost, and though now he'd been given a reprieve, he knew that he couldn't make the same mistakes. He had the potential to be the most dangerous wizard in all of history. He could rule the world if only he applied himself properly.

The first thing he did after turning the entire village into a fairly serviceable undead army was to reroute the very pattern of mana flow around the area to mask his work. He made sure that it his casting would look like a temporary spike left over from the huge battle, which was natural. He would have a bit more leeway to perform even larger spells without being detected by allowing the mana to dissipate quickly, but that also meant that he couldn't maintain spells very well. It was a trade-off he was willing to make for now. Of course, eventually the world would know of his presence, but by then it would be too late.

Right now he sat in a sort of meditation, although it was rather different for a being who was no longer alive. He was searching the world, extending the grasp and influence of his awareness further and further away. He was searching for anything useful, but he also spied on his siblings. They didn't notice him, of course. What he was doing now was far different from the normal scrying sensors that could easily be detected. He was on another plane of existence and looking down into the material world. It was a plane of existence even powerful wizards only theorized about. He heard about his sister dating TJ Taylor, but what really interested him was TJ – Max could tell by his aura that despite being annoying and selfish, he wasn't truly evil. But what kind of spell could he have made? Max next moved his consciousness to the Wizard Council Headquarters, where he saw that there was a ward against magical intrusions. He mentally laughed at this as he went past it – since they hadn't had to deal with a Sorcerer in ages they didn't have spells yet that could prevent him from seeing what he wanted. He dug into the new spell patent files, but couldn't find TJ's there.

Next he riffled through the files of the head of the department, causing his awareness to penetrate through the layers of paper, or go into the desk, whatever was necessary. He still couldn't find any mention of TJ Taylor. He wasn't about to give up though – his next course of action was the Wizard Supernatural Defense Council. If TJ had created a spell that was potentially useful in the unlikely and disastrous circumstances of the Wizarding world having to step in to defend the mortal world from supernatural threats, then they would have it, and it might even be kept a secret from even other wizards.

There he hit paydirt. In a confidential file he found TJ Taylor's spell. What he saw was excellent. Still more excellent was that TJ Taylor was not evil. He couldn't trust other evil wizards – they would want all the power for themselves, and they would be in a position where they could possibly get it. This line of thought reminded him of something he should take care of.

He turned his attention to the wizard prison, where Dr. Evilini was serving hard time for her attempt to kill Justin and take his powers. The cells were of course, made of the type of plastic impervious to spells – ordinary spells anyway, not Sorcerer magic.


	17. Behind, Ahead

"Omigosh," Alex said, running down the stairs the next day, holding a wizard newspaper.

"Since when do you read the wizard news?" Justin said, slicing an orange at the kitchen's island counter.

"I don't – TJ texted me and told me to check it out. Look at this!" she shoved the paper in front of Justin. "Dr. Evilini, the wizard who tried to steal Justin's powers, just died in her holding cell!"

"Whoa, what could have caused that?" Jerry said from his position, looking for something in the refrigerator.

"They said it was a simple heart attack. It was unexpected, but apparently a totally natural occurrence. Unless – could someone have done it to her magically?" Alex said nervously.

"No, there are a few reasons why they couldn't have," Jerry explained. "For one thing, no magic can penetrate those cells. For another, they would have been able to detect the signature of a spell if one could effect her, and lastly, and most importantly, there's no heart attack spell."

"Well that's a relief. Huh, I guess it was just a strange happenstance."

"These things do happen," Justin said. "By the way dad, I'm up to section 18 of the third manuscript by Mortal Ritualist Henry Cromwell and I have a question regarding the influence of elemental air on the third construction involved in the Warding ritual."

"All right," Jerry said. "I'd be happy to discuss that with you. See, the Ward only works when there's a balance of elements, and the airy principle binds them together."

"Right, but I thought it was the earth element that brought together the other three..." Justin's voice, from Alex's point of view, trailed off, because she was getting bored and was wandering downstairs.

TJ lived nearby, so she met up with him so that they could walk to school together.

"TJ?" Alex said, a hint of reluctance in her voice.

"Hmm?"

"That spell you made for the Wizard Council, what exactly was it?"

"Oh! It was – well, actually it's a confidential spell now, I can't talk about it."

"Confidential? Why would it be that? You couldn't have made something dangerous! They wouldn't have taken it."

"Well, it might be dangerous in the wrong hands, see. But anything could be... I really can't say anything more..."

"Aw, I won't tell anyone," Alex said, batting her eyelashes. She was not acting uncharacteristically, rather, acting different to get what she wants is the most characteristic thing about her. The funny thing was TJ knew this, but he still couldn't resist her charms.

"Well OK. It was a spell that summoned a powerful elemental being, bound under the command of the caster. They decided it could be useful, but dangerous, so they locked it up for emergencies."

"Ooh! I want to see," Alex said, holding TJ's arm with both of her hands.

"I couldn't if I wanted to," TJ said. "It requires a number of rather uncommon ingredients, which could be gotten en masse in such an emergency as would require using it."

"Aw, well, I suppose you're not supposed to cast it anyway," she said, realizing this at last.

"Well yeah," TJ said, dejectedly, feeling as though he was losing ground with his new girlfriend. "But hey, I can cast _this_ spell," he said, pulling a bouquet of flowers from behind his back. Alex smiled. Perhaps things would be OK now that they were moving on from the dark days that were behind them. Little did she know of the dark days ahead.

* * *

Max, on the other hand, had different plans. He hated to admit it, but he admitted it as part of his resolution to not be too cocky, but he needed TJ Taylor. The actual method for casting the spell had been locked up in such a manner that even Max couldn't discern what it was. Perhaps they weren't as incautious as he had originally thought, although they certainly didn't guard their prisoners well enough from Sorcerous influence. Certainly the prisoners couldn't get out, but someone could kill them from outside, apparently. This was unfortunate, because that means someone could get to them before they could be interrogated. When he ruled the world, he would make sure to amend this.

He wasn't ready, though, mentally speaking, to approach him. He didn't know why, which is why he had to wait. He wasn't going to do it until he was completely sure that he was prepared. Caution was the name of the game here.

"Sir? The city's fortifications are complete," a skeletal taskmaster said, interrupting Max's thoughts. While he was preparing, he was expanding this village. He had cut down much of the foliage around it and was building walls and palisades out of the wood. The undead villagers obeyed out of fear, although Max was not omnipotent. He didn't quite know the limits of his power, though, and it seemed to have some quirks. For one thing, he couldn't create anything permanently. This much he found natural, according to the laws of thermodynamics as he knew them.

"Excellent. Soon we will be in a prime position to strike against those who have wronged me, and then seize even more – more that I deserve. You take what you can get, and you give nothing back -" he turned his head slowly, revolving his empty eye sockets toward the other skeleton in front of him. Despite being an undead creature himself, Max's minion couldn't seem to get used to Max looking at him like that, and, also despite lacking any body, mentally shuddered. "Remember that."

"Yessir, I'll be off sir," he said, leaving quickly. Max ignored him.

"Androcas!" Max cried, and the Medicine Man came in, an old grey skeleton covered in cracks and bumps, but wearing his old feathered hat.

"Max?" he said, the only one who dared to call him by his first name.

"How is the mending coming?"

"Easier than healing humans, I'll tell you that. Just bones to sew back together with sinews. It's really strange work but you are right that these bodies may last us longer."

"They are magical bodies, of course they will. Has there been any dissent?"

"Well, the people aren't extremely happy, but no one is revolting yet."

Max laughed, and echoing hallow laugh that didn't sound like someone at pleasure. Most of the people would recoil at this, but Androcas had more willpower than that. "Eh?" he said.

"Nothing – it's just how I was reflecting one way to translate your statement into my native language. I might say we are all revolting, but none of us are rebelling." The pun was lost in the translation to the fringe language they were using, and Max sighed. "Some day, I'll have to teach you English."

"Yes sir, very well sir," Androcas said, saluting somewhat ironically and leaving. Max watched Androcas' aura as he left. Pure goodness – perhaps spotted by some of the more vile magics he knew, but in all, it was a man who would serve him well. Max smiled. He couldn't do anything else.


	18. A refusable offer

Max chuckled malevolently. His plan was beginning to come together, although it did mean revealing some of his hand to his brother and sister. Still, only one of them could do anything about it, since only one of them could have won the competition after Justin had killed him. Probably, Justin won the competition too, and he didn't kill Alex. Thus much Max had been able to glean from previous divinations. It was also how he had learned about TJ Taylor.

For some reason, Max was having trouble spying on them at the moment. Despite his power, something even more powerful was preventing him. If he could have, he could have seen who had won by seeing who the full wizard was. As it was, he was only getting a brief glimpse of things, so although he did know that both his siblings were alive and well, he didn't know which of them would try to stop him.

Of course, the Wizard Council would try to stop Max, too. This he felt he could deal with. But his family was another question. They were relentless and seemingly able to solve any problem, especially when Justin and Alex worked together. True, sometimes Max had helped, but largely it was Justin and Alex. They were so much closer to one another than either of them to Max. In a way, Max was envious. But that wasn't the cause for his current plotting. His current desires stemmed from a much deeper and devious place, yet it was baser and simpler in other ways. He wanted revenge on everyone for thinking that he was no threat – for thinking he was dumb and simple. But revenge isn't quite the right word, either. For making everyone think that he was such a simpleton was part of his grand plan, one that he had been working on since he was old enough to walk. He would seize power by seeming to not be a contestant, and then he would show the world what kind of power he did have. But he never did apply himself as hard as he could have, never studying as hard as he could have, because for whatever reason, magic came to him easily.

Why he was still able to perform magic was another question entirely, and one to which he didn't know the answer. He vaguely thought about trying to research it, but decided that it didn't really matter so much, as long as he could. For now, it was time to pay a visit to a certain someone.

* * *

TJ and Alex were in Alex's room. Alex had a 20 minute break while everyone else was still working in the Sub Station. So TJ and Alex were engaged in their new favorite pastime, which they only did when alone – making out. They were both seated, but with their legs wrapped around one another – and their tongues too.

Alex didn't know quite why she was getting so involved with TJ. She hadn't really liked him at first, but now she felt a certain sort of kinship toward him, being their family's wizards. And he wasn't bad looking either... and a good kisser. Still, something about this felt wrong, yet that only made it all the more pleasurable as they carried on like this. He knew, from various experimentations, the right places to touch her just so to make her shudder with delight.

Suddenly, there was the puff of smoke of someone teleporting in. Instinctively, they sprang apart, not wanting to get caught doing what they were doing. Then it hit Alex – who would be teleporting in anyway? As the smoke cleared, she saw a skeleton standing in her room, with glowing red eyes.

She screamed in abject terror as TJ jumped up from the bed and raised his wand. The skeleton _chuckled_, a deep maniacal laugh far worse than anything Dr. Evilini had ever produced, and raised its hand. TJ's wand flew from him. Then the skeleton waved its hand slightly and TJ froze, unable to move to cast any other spells, even those he could have done without his wand.

"What's going on?" Justin cried, running into the room. "I was just starting my break when- what the hell is _that_?" he said, seeing the skeleton. Suddenly, it spoke.

"You don't recognize me?" the voice was as deep as the laugh would have implied, yet there was something familiar about it that was unnerving. "You don't, either?" it said, looking at Alex. She shook her head, confused.

"I would expect my own siblings to recognize their brother," it continued.

"Max?" Justin and Alex cried at once.

"It is indeed me. So glad to see you, dear siblings, although I have to admit that you aren't the chief reason for me to be here. I've come to make TJ an offer."

"Whoa whoa, wait, what's going on here?" Alex said. "I thought Justin killed you, Max. And when did you become all-" she waved her hand vaguely.

"Well, you have Justin to thank for that one," Max said as wryly as his magical undead voice could. "He did kill me, but ancient powerful magic has brought me back into the world of the living. Sort of, anyway." He chuckled. "I shall not fall again."

"Max! I'm sorry about that – I'm sorry I had to... but you were trying to kill me! This is good, we can start over. I'm sure we can fix the skeleton thing," Justin said, a mixture of emotions welling up inside him. He couldn't quite express how he was feeling, but despair, guilt and fear were major components.

"Don't be sorry at all, brother. I have become more powerful because of it. By the way, which one of you won the competition?"

"Alex did," Justin said, his voice dry. "She cornered me into a position where I had to forfeit." He didn't add that Alex had killed him and then rewound time, or else Max may have asked why Justin hadn't done the same. Why hadn't he? Guilt washed over Justin and he found it hard to stand. He walked over to Alex's bed and sat down on it.

"Ah, she did? Congratulations Alex. I'm sorry for you, Justin, but you have your intellect to carry yourself on. And Alex – you were never dumb, either. You were very smart in your own conniving, secretive way. I'm certain you would have been fine without magic, too. But I? You never expected anything of your little brother! To you, he was just a stupid, inane and downright crazy child. That had been my plan all along! Of course, it didn't work, but I have been granted a second chance. Somehow, I still have my spellcasting powers..."

"You're a Sorcerer, Max," Alex said, with tears in her eyes. "Dad said he didn't know, but I bet he would help you now! Are you coming back to us?"

"No no, as I said, I'm here for TJ. Forgive me for going off on a tangent like that. Now, where was I? Oh yes, Mr. Taylor. You have developed an elemental binding spell of which I am interested. I am to understand that the components of it are uncommon, but able to be farmed en masse given the right start up? I believe unicorn hair is involved?"

Although TJ was frozen, he found that he could still speak. "Yes, but what do you want with it? The spell is confidential – how did you even figure that much out? I'm sure the Wizard Council doesn't appreciate -"

"Oh, haha, Wizard Council, all that rubbish," Max said, dismissing them with a hand wave. "Doesn't bother me. What does is that they've hidden the exact method of casting the spell in a way that even I cannot get past. That's where I need you. As the creator of the spell, you know how to cast it, yes?"

"Well, yes, but I still don't get why you want it."

"An army of elementals, my friend! Who could pass it up? Using them, I could probably destroy the Wizard Council itself!"

"Max! Why are you even planning things like that?" Alex yelled at him.

"Because I can, dear sister. There is no better reason for me to do anything, well except possibly 'because I want to.' You can join me, you know. All three of you! I hold no grudges against my family, or their significant others."

"I'll never join you!" TJ cried. Max chuckled again.

"Oh you living people amuse me so. OK then."

TJ started screaming. "My head! What the hell are you doing to me?" Max unfroze him, and TJ fell to the floor, clutching his head and writhing in agony.

"Max! Stop that! What are you doing to him!" Alex yelled. Max said nothing, but a bolt of fired shot out from his hand and rushed toward Alex. Justin dove in front of her and it hit him in the chest. Max laughed, expecting to see a scorched mark on Justin and him on the floor, dying, but he looked like he was in perfect condition.

"How did you do that?" Max said, suddenly stopping his laughter. TJ was whimpering on the floor, but had stopped screaming.

"A shielding ritual," Justin said, smugly. "Wizards aren't the only ones who can do magic."

"No matter, I'll get to you later," Max said, poofing out of the room.


	19. On the hunt

"Dad!" Alex yelled, running down the stairs. Justin supported TJ and helped him down the stairs as well, but Alex shot on ahead. She found her father making a sandwich in the shop.

"Dad," Alex said in a loud whisper. "Max is alive."

"What? How?" Jerry asked, now distracted from his pastrami on rye.

"I don't know. He turned into some skeleton thingy, though," Alex explained.

"Ah, I've heard of such spells. It brings someone back to life – sort of. But then they are effectively immortal. Still, it's a vile and repulsive spell and I can't imagine anyone in their right mind wanting to go through with it."

"Dad, I don't think Max is in his right mind. He was talking about using the spell TJ created to take over the Wizard Council."

"It sounds like he's gone mad with power," Jerry said gravely. "Not all that uncommon among Sorcerers, I'm afraid. What spell did TJ make?"

"It summoned and bound an elemental to the caster's control. Max wants to make an army of them!"

"Does he know how to cast it?"

"No. He was trying to get TJ to tell him, but TJ wouldn't, so Max cast a spell on TJ. Actually, you should take a look at him," she said, since now TJ and Justin were walking into the kitchen.

"What were the symptoms?" Jerry asked, looking at TJ.

"My head hurt worse than any headache I've ever had. And it was cold, too," TJ replied.

Jerry nodded. "You'll be OK, but I'm afraid that was a mind probing spell. We should assume that Max knows how to cast the spell. Did it require any rare components?"

TJ thought about it. "Well, unicorn hair. That's really the only hard to get component."

"Excellent! We'll alert the Wizard Game Commission immediately," Jerry said. "Alex, give me your wand and activate the Wizard Phone feature."

Alex obeyed and handed over her wand. Jerry had a brief exchange with the Wizard Game Commission. He told them that he had reason to believe there was a unicorn poacher on the loose. He didn't expand on that, because explaining the whole story would be either unbelievable or too alarming. Worse, since the culprit was his son, he didn't want to seem involved. Fortunately they seemed to believe him. It was, after all, around the time of year that poachers were most active. Hopefully that would stave off Max's plan, because if he couldn't get a massive amount of unicorn hair, he couldn't cast the spell. Unfortunately it is hard to totally prevent unicorn hair collection because unicorns shed, and you'll sometimes find clumps of hair in the forests in which they frolic. Due to their possible use in magical spells, the hair collection is regulated and part of a Wizard Game Warden's job is to collect as much discarded hair as they can find so that it can be distributed in a legal and non-harmful manner. Fortunately, collecting unicorn hair was non-harmful to the unicorns, unlike the collection of their horns. Tame unicorns, usually offspring of those that were injured in the wild, are even shaved every summer for their hair.

"Huh," Jerry said, hanging up and returning Alex's wand to her. "They said that they indeed had reports of a poacher. Lucky us."

Justin suddenly remembered something he had done when the competition was still in full swing, and felt a pang of acute guilt. "Um yeah, sure is," he elected to say.

"Daddy, I'm not reassured so much," Alex said. "What if they underestimate Max? We sure did."

"Well, they don't have any idea who they're dealing with," Jerry reasoned. "I'm sure they'll be as safe as they need to be."

* * *

Meanwhile, Max was walking along a forest path, beside Androcas, his still trusted right-hand man. Androcas was beginning to regret what he'd done, and Max knew it, and Androcas knew that he knew. He still served Max out of a sense of fear, another thing that both of them acknowledged. Yet he was the least afraid of him, out of all Max's current minions.

Max sighed, contentedly. Actually he can't really sigh anymore, but he still made a very similar sound in order to make a point. "Nothing like unicorn hunting in the crisp weather, eh Androcas?"

"And how many innocent unicorns will have to die to see your plan come to fruition?" Androcas retorted.

"Why, none my dear Androcas! I may be a monster, but I am practical," Max said, scanning the ground for hair. "If I kill a bunch of unicorns, think how obvious that would be. I've already revealed a bit much, I think, by visiting my brother, sister and her boyfriend. Funny, I never saw her and TJ Taylor together. Not her type, really. She always preferred, well, she was open minded but she liked people who weren't lethally annoying, at least. Still, TJ is a powerful wizard, and I can respect that."

"Must have been nice to catch up with the family," Androcas said ironically.

Max pretended not to notice his irony. "Yes, although I didn't see my father or mother. Not that it matters, I'm dead to them. I mean, I expect Alex and Justin to run to daddy and tell him all about me and what I've become. I – wait a second, did you hear that?" Max stopped in the middle of his speech upon hearing a twig snap some space ahead of them. Approaching them on the path was a Wizard Game Warden. "And we're not dressed for company," Max whispered, snapping his fingers. At once he and Androcas were covered in illusions, making them look like normal Wizards out for a hike.

"Good day!" the Wizard Game Warden said as he came into view of the other two. "Fine day for a – ahhh!" he began screaming, clutching his head and writhing on the ground just as TJ had.

"You're enjoying that mental probe spell," Androcas noted.

"Indeed. Almost as much as the heart-stopping spell," Max returned, casting the latterly referred-to spell on the Warden, killing him swiftly, once he knew what he needed to. "Unicorns to the west," he said. "Now where was I? Oh yes. Justin and Alex always ran to dad when they messed up. Yes, even Justin messed up once in a while. And he fixed things. But I...you know how I kept from running to dad whenever I messed up? I never messed up! Oh sure, I hardly ever did things correctly, that was all part of the plan. But can you show me a time when I caused a mess that dad had to clean up? And they thought I was the dumb one. Ha!"

They turned west, on the trail of the unicorns.


	20. Plans are made

Max ventured west and found the trail of the unicorns rather quickly. There was a patch of hair caught on a bramble, just lying on the forest floor. He picked up the mess and examined it carefully.

"Ah, a follicle," he said, looking at it very closely. "Yes, this is exactly what I need. Well that and a horse, but I can get those anywhere."

"I see what you're planning on doing, very clever sir," Androcas said in his wry and sarcastic tone. "You're going to breed your own unicorns."

"Unicorns? Goodness no!" Max said, laughing. "I'm going to breed my own unicorn. Singular. All I need is the hair, after all, and it just so happens that there is a hair/fingernail growth spell that hardly ever sees any use. What better way to abuse it than using it to create the material components needed in my own elemental army?"

"Yes sir. Very good sir," Androcas mumbled.

"Why if I didn't know any better, I'd say you weren't impressed!" Max chided. "But come along now, back to my lair." He snapped his fingers once more and they disappeared, reappearing in his jungle palace.

Then he snapped his fingers again and a horse appeared.

"Where'd you get that?" Androcas asked.

"I don't know. Don't care," Max replied. "But now it's time for the dirty work..."

* * *

"OK," Alex said as she, Justin and Jerry held a strategy session in the lair. "We can't tell mom about Max."

"Agreed," Jerry said. "She hates magic anyway. You know why she always hated magic?"

"Because it kept getting us into messes?" Justin asked.

"No, because of the competition. She knew that eventually it might tear the family apart. And now it has," Jerry replied gravely.

"How do we defeat Max, anyway?" Justin said.

"You mean kill him? Again?" Alex said angrily, glaring at Justin.

"Alex, we have to! He's too mad and too powerful. I don't think we can bring him back."

"Unfortunately, your brother is right," Jerry said, trying to calm Alex down. "There's really nothing we can do except destroy him."

"OK, but how do we even do that?" Alex said. "Just hit him with a fireball or something?"

"I'm afraid it's not that simple," Jerry continued. "See, in this form he cannot be killed. If his body is destroyed, it reforms about a day later and he continues from where he left off."

"What if we trapped him somewhere? Like inside someplace where even his magic can't get him out?" Justin offered.

"That would be a good idea, but I don't know how we could do that," Jerry explained. "See, his magic is unlike ours. Not even plastic can stop it. And if we, say, buried him in the earth he'd just use his magic to get back out."

"Well wait, what if we did destroy his body?" Justin suggested. "I know he'd just come back, but at least it would delay him for a bit."

"And how do you propose we do that?" Alex said. "He's way more powerful than I am, and mortal ritualism is too slow to do any good against him. If you tried to prepare any powerful spells with it, he'd probably just find out and stop you."

"I dunno about that, Alex. I put up an anti-detection ward a while ago and I've felt it ping me a few times. I think he's been stopped by it at least a bit."

"Really? Well maybe I underestimated mortal ritualism. Still, I think we need a good plan before we go off and confront him."

"Your sister is right," Jerry interjected. "It would be better to have a plan than not."

"OK well... can we destroy his soul? Or banish it or something?" Alex asked.

"No," Jerry stated flatly. "Well, banish it maybe, but we can't destroy it. No magic can do that."

"What about trapping it?" Justin asked.

"We might be able to do that. OK, we'll have to research banishing and trapping spells then."

* * *

It didn't take long for Max to get a baby unicorn out of the horse.

"I've never seen such time manipulation," Androcas commented at the whole affair.

"Yeah, a baby unicorn in under eight hours! I bet it's a new record. Too bad about the mother, though," Max said as he looked at the corpse of the dead mare. "Ah well," he shrugged. "Not very useful anyway. Now..." he flicked his fingers at the unicorn and it grew a long mane and shaggy hair all over its body.

TJ's spell only required a certain quantity of hair, and it could be in as many or as few pieces as one could acquire. It didn't even need the follicle, like certain spells might.

"I've been wondering, sir," Androcas said in a tone of actual interest. "What makes this elemental spell different from others? I know of a few spells that summon and bind an elemental spirit to a caster's will."

"Ah, glad you asked," Max began. "This particular spell summons an extremely powerful, gigantic elemental, and the control you have over it is immense. Elementals can be fickle things, but this spell is powerful enough to overcome that."

"Sounds useful, then," Androcas finished.

Max cut a bit of unicorn hair off with a magically conjured dagger. "Hmm, yes, and I know just how to test it, too."

"How's that? A giant fire elemental to waltz into the Wizard Council and destroy the place?"

"No no, nothing that spectacular. Elementals come in many forms and my first is going to be somewhat more subtle than that," Max said.

He began to cast the spell. Androcas watched. What was going on through the right-hand man's mind as he did so was anyone's guess, even Max's. But Max trusted him, to a certain extent. One of the reasons Max had such power over him and his village was because if anything were to happen to Max, the spell that animated Androcas and his people would fail, and they would all die, permanently. So Androcas could not be planning anything against Max, despite how vocal he was against Max's plans.


	21. and followed up upon

"Oh my God," Alex said as she watched television.

"What'd I tell you about taking the Lord's name in vain?" her Catholic mother scolded.

"Sorry mom. I just saw on TV that there's a tornado watch for our area!"

"Tornado?" Theresa said, sounding alarmed. "That's doesn't happen often around here."

"Hence my surprise and shock that led me to utter such vulgarity," Alex said, though with a hint of sarcasm. Theresa decided to ignore it now.

"It's not even tornado season," she said.

Justin and Jerry came in from downstairs, hearing a bit of the conversation.

"What's this about tornados?" Jerry asked.

"There's a tornado near our area. We might have to head down into the basement," Alex explained.

"Tornado, element, Max! Ah!" Jerry said in his usual method of deduction. "Alex, cast the aura sight spell!"

Alex did as she was told. "What am I looking for?"

"Just look at the screen. Are they showing the tornado?"

"Not at the moment – oh wait," she said as the flicked back to footage. "Ouch! That's too bright!" Alex cried, holding her hands over her eyes.

"Just as I suspected," Jerry said in an explanatory tone. "It's a bound elemental spirit. Max is trying out his new spell in a somewhat subtle manner."

"Dad, if it's an elemental, we can dismiss it," Justin suggested.

"Good idea," Jerry replied. "But it'll take a lot of power. Go research the banishing ritual, while I look up the power gestalt ritual."

"Power gas salt, what now?" Alex asked, confused.

"Gestalt. It means like a combination thingy. It's how you can Justin can work together to cast the banishing ritual, despite the fact that he's mortal and you're a wizard."

"Oh, that sounds handy," Alex said. "Um, should we get downstairs now?"

"Yeah, let's reconvene in the lair," Jerry said as they all walked downstairs. That was where Jerry and Justin would be doing their research anyway. Theresa grabbed a radio as they went.

When they had all settled down into the lair (although Theresa was uncomfortable as usual down there), Justin and Jerry began pulling tomes off the bookshelf. Alex fretted nervously, listening to the radio give reports of the tornado.

* * *

"Yeehaw!" Max shouted. He had projected his and Androcas' spirits to the air elemental and were watching it cause destruction. It was actually _in_ New York City, ripping up city streets and throwing cars every which way. A small display near Max, which only he and Androcas could see, displayed an increasing number.

"What is that?" Androcas asked dryly, pointing at the growing number.

"Death count. Ain't it fun?" Max said, laughing in his humorless manner. "I'm thinking of a fire elemental in Mt. St. Helen next, then an earth elemental underneath San Francisco, and then a water elemental in New Orleans. What do you think?" Max asked Androcas.

Androcas looked nervous and worried. "Well sir, I think that you'd be more likely to attract the attention of the Wizard Council. They might already be able to tell that this is a spirit and not a regular tornado, you know."

"Yeah, you _would_ tell me to stop having fun and stop killing people.

"It's just a practical matter, sir. I think you should stop being discreet and storm the Council as soon as possible."

"Ah, well that's practical advice! And extremely aggressive of you, Androcas. Nice to see you grow a pair. You know, metaphorically speaking." Max laughed again and Androcas would shudder if he weren't so used to it.

"You know," Max continued. "Screw this whole 'magic is secret' thing too. If everyone knew of my power, they would tremble in fear! Why has the Council kept magic secret all these years? In fear that they'd be hunted down? They're _wizards_! They, WE, should be the hunters! If we'd just applied ourselves, we could rule the whole damn world. And you know what, I damn well intend to!" Max cried at Androcas. "Although I think I'm powerful enough that I don't need to band together with other wizards. I plan to rule both the wizard and mortal realms by myself."

"Very ambitious, sir," Androcas mumbled.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Wizard Council Chairman of the Board, Charles "Old Chuck" Axllatl was receiving a message from a foreign entity. It was saying thus:

"_Most exalted sir, we have detected a major magical disturbance in your city of New York. Our council has held an emergency meeting and our people have agreed to overlook our non-interference policy and grant you aid in this time of disaster, if you deem it necessary."_

To which he sent back this reply:

"Thank you for your consideration. I would like to extend my gratefulness to all your people for this kindness. However, we have it entirely under control. You need worry not about it."

But he wasn't sure he was telling the truth.


	22. Alex's service

Alex lazed about down in the lair as Justin and Jerry searched through the collection of magic books. Theresa stood around, pacing and uncomfortably shifting her weight.

"Aha!" Jerry exclaimed, poking a pudgy finger at a block of text in a newer-looking book on magic. "It's like I thought – if Justin prepares the spell and casts it beforehand, Alex can suspend it, activating the spell to banish the elemental. It's a pretty close range, though. It sounds dangerous, but I think we can do it."

"Wait, wait...why do I have to suspend the spell and be the one to reactivate it, then?" Alex said, upon hearing that it would be dangerous.

"You're a full wizard," Jerry explained. "So we need to harness your power during the reactivation. See, by channeling the spell through you, we can amplify it. Full wizards are inherently more powerful, which is why we're doing it that way."

"Oh. Of course! Ha! I'm more powerful," Alex said, sticking out her tongue at Justin. Justin in turn rolled his eyes.

"You may have the raw power, but you lack finesse."

"OK OK, you should really get to casting the spell," Jerry interjected. He gave Justin a different book, this one having the banishing spell in it. He had already read the guide on casting a spell to be suspended, so he prepared that first. He took a small bowl of salt and sprinkled it in a circular pattern on the table.

"Hey Justin, I can tell you're a seasoned wizard," Alex said, chuckling slightly. Justin rolled his eyes again.

"Alex, pay close attention," Jerry said. "The spell to suspend another spell is tricky. You have to motion like this," he said, moving his hands in a downward circular spiral, "and intone '_Tempus fugit omnibus sed id impero'". _

"_Tempus fu-" _

"Not now!" Jerry interrupted. "Once Justin finishes casting the spell. Oh! And at the end, point your wand toward Justin."

Justin sighed. Wizard spells were so easy! You didn't have to know anything except the words and possibly a somatic component. Mortal ritualism was much more involved. It usually required materials and precise rituals, involving the invoking of the names of certain spirits. It required a working knowledge of the occult cosmology of the universe and often relied on specific astrological events to be done properly. Add on top of this that Justin was still doing all the leg-work when something goes wrong magically! It was practically not fair that Alex had won the wizard powers. Maybe he could convince her to give them up to him.

Alex watched as Justin sprinkled a small amount of water over the salt, chanting a word in some language she didn't know. She supposed it wasn't Spanish since she was in that, but let's be honest, it still could be. Just because she's in a class doesn't mean she actually knows anything. Heck, even if she goes to a class (which she does for Spanish. Sometimes, anyway.) that doesn't mean she pays attention, and even if she pays attention that doesn't mean that she'll necessarily retain any knowledge. In any event, she wasn't too interested in what Justin was doing.

"Ugh! Can we just-"

"Shush!" Jerry said. Justin finished his spell, and Jerry waved to Alex.

"What am I, oh, right!" Alex said. "_Tempus fugit omnibus sed id impero!" _she said, performing the proper hand motions and pointing at Justin at the end. Her wand glowed slightly. She looked at it.

"OK... did I do it right?"

"Yep!" Jerry said, proudly. Justin sighed. "You both did well. Now we need to cast the spell at the elemental! Everyone, out into the street!"

Alex gave her father a 'you've-got-to-be-kidding-me' look, but followed him upstairs. They went out through the Sub Station doors onto the streets. It was cloudy and windy, and no one in their right mind was out. Alex was reluctant, but she came too. After all, she was technically the most essential part and in fact, the only one necessary.

"There it is!" Jerry cried, pointing to the large funnel shaped cloud that loomed very near them.

"Oh. Right. Would you look at that," Alex said, none too enthusiastically.

"We have to get closer?"

"What?" Alex yelled. That was insane, no way was she doing that. But Jerry and Justin were already running toward it. Alex ran after them.

As they got closer, Alex felt buffeted by the winds. She could barely walk any further when Jerry finally yelled at her to cast the spell.

"What do I do?" she yelled over the wind.

"Just yell 'Release'!" he cried.

"Release!" Alex said, pointing the wand at the tornado. A beam of light shot out from her wand,attaching itself to the tornado. It began to break up, the clouds dissipating, and the wind died down considerably.

"Did I do it?" Alex said, looking at the spot where the tornado had been.

"Yep, you sure did, kid," Jerry said, putting his arms around both his kids as they walked back home.

* * *

"Oh, hmm," Max said, back in his throne room. "Would you look at that? My air elemental died."

"Died, sir?" Androcas asked.

"Well in any event, it's not there any more," Max explained. "Of course I've only been keeping rudimentary tabs on it. Ah well, it's not too important. How are the preparations for the mass summoning going?"

"Oh, fairly well. You know, despite the fact that I think you're a vile and horrible sub-person, your plan to prepare all the reagents in series of dishes along the path you're going to summon your elementals is very efficient."

"Well yeah, I should be able to summon them all within minutes of each other. What was the limiting reagent, anyway?"

"The unicorn hair, sir," Androcas said, gesturing over to the unicorn, which was now entirely shaved.

"Drat. I kind of thought it might turn out to be," Max said. "Ah well. How many elementals is that going to turn out to be?"

"Two-hundred fifty-six sir."

"Oohee!" Max yelled, an exclamation of joy. "That'll wreak some havoc with the Council all right."

* * *

In the lair, two wizards in dark suits with sunglasses were standing with Theresa as Jerry, Justin and Alex triumphantly came down.

"Jerry," Theresa said with concern. "These wizards have been sent by the Council."

"Really? What can we help you with?" Jerry asked.

"I'm Agent Lemon, this is Agent Orange," said the taller of the two. "I'm afraid Ms. Alex Russo is in a bit of trouble."

"What? No way, what for?" Alex cried. "I just saved the city from an air elemental!"

"Yes, well see... doing that is a violation of the wizard code of conduct, because you could have exposed magic to the outside world."

"It was a freaking air elemental! Isn't that a breach of conduct?"

"Well yes," Agent Lemon said slowly. "Which is why we're only suspending your powers for a month." He pointed his wand at her, and the small glowing ball of magical threads that was Alex's powers left her and went into it. "Oh, and thanks for saving the city, by the way." The two agents began to leave. The room wondered if they should mention Max, but then decided not to. "We'll look into the air elemental thing, we promise." With that, they left.

"Great, this is just great," Alex said, flopping down on the couch. "Just when we need it the most, our greatest resource is taken away. What are we supposed to do now?"

Justin smiled and patted a book on mortal ritualism. "Looks like you're going to have to stoop to my level," he said. Alex groaned.


	23. A Lesson in Magic

"Ugh, why does mortal ritualism have to be so boring?" Alex said after a few hours of studying with Justin. "I wish TJ were here."

Justin looked at Alex. "Blah, if TJ were here he'd be too interested in you to actually get anything done," he reasoned.

"Who said anything about getting anything done?" Alex smirked. Although TJ wasn't the kind of boyfriend that caused her to stare off dreamily into space occasionally, he was still a bright, somewhat caring guy. And he was cute enough. Still, her heart didn't skip beats and she was perfectly able to breathe around him. That didn't prevent her from wishing he were present, though. She was going through a lot right now and having a masculine shoulder to cry on would be beneficial. Alas she would have no luck – her brother was rather preventing her from getting anywhere emotionally as she was bombarded with elemental plane theory and ritual performance tips. It seemed that you had to remember so much. What a drag.

"Well the sooner we take care of Max, the sooner you can start carrying on with TJ again," Justin said, dryly.

"Aww, is someone jealous?" Alex said, lisping a bit mockingly. "You wish you had a girlfriend?"

"I've had girlfriends before, you know," Justin said bitterly. "Just, you know...I've been busy and – well now come on we're both much too busy right now to bother with this conversation!" Justin said, clearing his throat. It was true, Justin had dated a number of girls. Like a centaur and a werewolf and a really crazy chick. Well, they weren't so much dating as she was obsessed with him. Harper was rather jealous of that. However, both her and Harper had gotten over Justin, and Justin hadn't dated much since Juliet, anyway.

"I think you are," Alex said, drawing out the last word.

"Alex!" Justin yelled, slamming his book down. "We have more important things to do right now! Life can't always be about us, or us fighting! There are important things! Important! Things!" Justin cried, his face getting hot. He sighed. "OK, OK...maybe you could use a break."

"Yes!" Alex cried, jumping up and running upstairs. Justin, meanwhile, figures that he's just been played, that Alex had that planned all along. Dammit, Alex.

Alex rushed upstairs and called TJ.

"TJ, how are you doing?" she asked.

"All right, anyway," he said. He still wasn't completely recovered from Max's assault.

"You're such a brave man!" Alex cooed. "I can't believe how you stood up to my brother. I wish I could do something to make you feel better..."

"Well actually-"

"But I have to tell you! My powers were suspended."

"What? No way! What for?"

"They said I almost exposed magic to the outside world when I banished the air elemental that manifest as a tornado."

"Oh, so that was you! I did think magic had been involved."

"It's total bullshit! No one saw it, everyone was inside!"

"Yeah, but tornadoes don't usually just dissipate like that, I guess. How long did they suspend your powers?"

"A whole month! Can you believe it? Now how am I going to help defeat Max?"

"I dunno...think it's time to call in the Council?"

"Well, if you were feeling better, I'd ask you to help."

"My brain is still a bit rattled," TJ replied. "I haven't even been able to cast straight, lately."

"Dammit!" Alex cried, not caring that her mother yelled "I heard that!" from downstairs. "Well I guess there goes that plan."

"The Council, then?"

"I guess so. But I doubt we'd get any help out of them. They're always like 'we'll look into it' and that seems to be the extent of what they do. It's like they probably won't even do anything until after Max attacks them, like he's planning."

"Well don't you think you should warn them, at least?"

"Yeah," Alex said, suddenly remembering that she would have had a chance just a bit ago when the agents came to take her powers, but her, Justin and her father had all silently decided not to. "I just wish we could do it anonymously."

"That wouldn't really work," TJ explained. "They don't pay as much attention to anonymous tips. After all, they wouldn't be able to validate it."

"All right. I'm going to get dad and tell him that we should alert the Wizard Council. Thanks TJ. Talk to you later, OK?"

"All right. Bye then," he said, but he didn't hang up.

"You hang up first," Alex said. He hung up. Alex frowned, but soon got over it and went downstairs to the kitchen, where her father was eating a pudding cup.

"How can you eat pudding cups at a time like this?" she questioned.

"What? Pudding is my comfort food," Jerry explained.

Alex shook her head. "Dad, TJ said, and I agree, that we should warn the Wizard Council about Max."

Jerry sighed. "I suppose we should. OK, activate your wand phone again..."

Alex did as she was told, this time dialing the Wizard Council. Jerry listened to the phone for a while and frowned. Then he hung up. Alex looked at him inquisitively.

"They said all their lines were busy and that we should try again later. I guess we should, then. Why don't you keep trying until you get through?"

"Great. I get the busy work."

"Hey, would you rather keep learning about mortal ritualism?"

Alex sighed. "I guess trying the phone it is, then."

* * *

Meanwhile, Max was continuing to prepare to summon his elemental army.

"Hey Androcas," Max said as he walked down the line of bowls of reagents. "Did you know that you can cast a spell that casts other spells?"

"No sir, I did not. Are you sure about that? I mean, I have no doubt you could, but do you suppose anyone could?"

"Oh hush. Yes, I can. I don't care if anyone else can. I guess I should have said 'Did you know that it is possible, in general principle, for a spell to cast another spell?'"

"Perhaps sir. But what do you intend to do with this?"

"Well, why cast 256 spells when I can cast one spell, which casts two spells, which each cast two spells, and so on for eight iterations, then those 256 spells each cast the summoning spell."

"Are you sure that's doable? The summoning spell is quite complicated. You might not be able to do that with it."

"Maybe not. But I can but try. Still, think about that! Two-hundred fifty-six spells cast simultaneously, with just a bit of overhead for the eight iterations to cast the spell that casts the spell that, you know and so on!"

"This is dangerous stuff, my lord. You could cast twice as many spells simply by increasing the number of iterations by one!"

"Yes, but I don't have that much unicorn hair," Max said, pointing out only thing stopping him from doing that here. "Still, I intend to cast that now. See this?" Max held out a single 8.5x11 sheet of paper with some arcane scrawling in it.

"A scroll, sir?"

"Yeah. You know, modern day scroll. This is a piece of printer paper I conjured. But I can write down the spell here, and then cast it just by invoking the command word to cast this spell."

"I see. And what command is that?"

"_Run_," Max said. The paper burned up in his hand, and a large glow descended over the area. Then a bolt of light seemed to come from Max's hand and streak toward the bowls. It split into two, then four, then eight, then sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, one-hundred twenty-eight and finally two-hundred fifty-six. Then these beams each hit one of the bowls. The reagents sizzled, being consumed with the casting of the spell.

From some other, far off plane, fire elementals were being called. They heeded the call and stepped through the portal, and onto the plane we know and love of our own.


	24. Rededication

Two hundred fifty six fire elementals. Each was in the form of a 20 foot tall humanoid structure, except much wider at the chest and built as though from blocks. Except of course, these were blocks of fire and as such, not perfectly rectangular. They stood, arrayed out in the field which Max had cleared out, mostly using the fire elementals themselves. He surveyed them, deeply pleased that his spell had worked.

"Impressive, sir," Androcas said. "Now how are you going to get them to the Wizard Council?"

"I figured on the direct approach," Max said.

"You mean just walk up to it with your army arrayed behind you and demand they acquiesce to your will?"

"No no, more direct than that." Max waved his hand vaguely and conjured another piece of paper with writing on it. Androcas examined it.

"Ye gods!" he cried. "They'll have no idea what hit them. They won't even have a chance to react!" If Androcas weren't also a skeletal being, his eyes would be wider than they are now. "Well, that is...if you can get by their defenses."

"I think I can. There seem to only be two spells that have stopped me from detecting anything and they would be too difficult to cast on the entire area of the grounds of the council headquarters."

"But sir, teleportation is more difficult than detection. You know that as well as I do, and you know that if something is more difficult it's easier to prevent."

"Yeah. Well, whatever, we'll see," he said. "_Run_."

* * *

"Hello, Wizard Council, how may I help you?" a secretary said on the wand phone.

"Hello, this is Alex Russo. I'd like to report, er, suspicious wizard activity," Alex said, unsure of herself in this situation. She wasn't one to talk to authorities very often. Or at all. She really tried to avoid them as much as possible.

"Oh, for that you'll want to speak with the Wizard Justice Department."

"But this relates directly to the Council," Alex argued.

"Don't worry Ms. Russo. We work closely with the Justice Department. I can connect you right now."

"All right," Alex said, figuring it was better than nothing.

After a few brief rings, someone answered again. "Wizard Justice Department, how may I help you?"

"Hello, this is Alex Russo-"

"Oh! Let me bring up your file... you know we haven't really had many problems with you lately, and most of your older stuff would have expired by now. You don't really have to argue anything with us."

Alex blushed a deep red and was glad no one else was listening to this conversation. She'd had similar ones when she argued certain items on her record.

"No, I'm not calling about that. I'm calling about -"

"Oh, you had your powers suspended by the Council? They really should give us notifications when your record is updated like that." Although the Justice department investigated most of the Wizard lawbreaking, the case of "exposing magic to mortals" was solely the jurisdiction of the Council itself. Furthermore, only the Council had the power to suspend powers – the Justice department has to present an appeal in order to get a dangerous wizard's powers removed.

"Yes, but I'm not calling about that either. I have information about an impending attack on the Wizard Council."

"Really." The secretary didn't sound convinced that Alex was telling the truth. "And how do you know this?"

"OK, during the competition my older brother killed my younger brother. But my younger brother came back as a creepy skeleton-thing and he somehow still has powers and so now he's trying to summon an army of elementals to attack the Council." Alex breathed heavily at the end of this.

"I see. Well we'll look into it, Ms. Russo. You don't worry about it. Have a nice day!" the secretary hung up.

That was just as Alex had said. They wouldn't really do anything. She hoped that they would find out before it was too late, however.

"OK dad," Alex said as she met her father upstairs in the Sub Station again. "I told them. They didn't seem to believe me and they just said they'd 'look into it.'"

"Huh, well, they'd be even more upset with us if we took matters into our own hands. We might just have to wait this one out," Jerry said, solemnly. But Alex wouldn't have it. She nodded to her father, pretending to agree, but then she went downstairs to see Justin.

"Justin," she said. He looked up from the tome in which he was immersed. "You need to teach me that mortal ritualism stuff. Dad said we had to take matters into our own hands. Exact words."

"He did?" Justin said understandably skeptically.

"Well he said the Wizard Council would be upset if we took matters into our own hands but upsetting the Wizard Council is a side boon to me. And since I don't mind upsetting them, then that must be what we have to do."

"Why we?" Justin said sulkingly.

"Well because you're not a wizard anymore, whatever you do the Council can't do anything about."

"I'm pretty sure they could, if they really wanted to. I mean heck, they could turn me into a toad for eternity."

"Don't worry, I won't let them mess with you."

Justin rolled his eyes. Since when was she supposed to protect him? But at least she was showing interest in learning, he had to give her that. So he would give in and teach her stuff.

"OK, well, where were we?"

"Lesson three: The exertion of the will on the planes."

"Oh yeah," Justin said. He opened another book and began his instruction to Alex. This time, amazingly enough, she actually listened. She even took notes. Justin was surprised, but he continued teaching without faltering. They got through lessons three through five before even Justin agreed that he needed a break.

* * *

Meanwhile, trouble was brewing at the Wizard Council Headquarters...


	25. The attack begins

Max, Androcas, and their army of fire elementals were teleported to the grounds of the Wizard Council's Headquarters – a large, fortified castle. They weren't able to teleport to inside it, but that was fine with Max. He was fairly sure of his own victory.

"OK, Androcas," Max said to the skeleton to his right. "You take half the elementals and go around back, I'll assault them from the front," he explained. Androcas nodded. Despite his hatred of Max and all that he'd become, he hated the Wizard Council as well, and with excellent reason.

Long ago, all his people practiced magic. They invoked the spirits of their ancestors, leaving them offerings, and asked for peace and prosperity in return. But the Wizard Council did not like people who were not associated with them. The Wizard Council sent wizards to destroy anyone who used magic in their tribe, which was most of them. A few escaped and kept the secrets of magic alive and passed it down among the broken tribe. Androcas was the spiritual successor to these men.

Max can read the auras of anyone just by looking at them. As it was said, Androcas' aura is that of a largely good man. Despite this, his current anger at the Wizard Council, buried for centuries in a sort of magical tribal memory, was marring the edges. He felt righteously justified in his current mission. After all, if he bothered to stop and read the auras of those he was prepared to kill, he would find out that they were, in fact, more evil than he.

* * *

"Magic has a few inherent rules," Justin was saying to Alex. "First of all, mana, that is, magical energy, cannot be created or destroyed, much like mundane energy."

"Then how do they generate it with dragons in a magical power-plant for wizards to use?" Alex asked, blowing some hair out of her eyes.

"They don't literally generate it, they just use the dragons' natural ability to coalesce mana into a usable form in order to provide for wizards, since most of the background mana dried up many years ago."

"Then how does mortal ritualism work?"

"Well see, mortal ritualism taps requires elevating your consciousness to be in tune with the planes themselves," he explained. "It manipulates things directly."

"So why isn't it more powerful than our magic?"

"Well, not mine anymore," Justin said, frowning slightly. "But anyway, it's because mana is very powerful and elevating your consciousness is very difficult. Mortal ritualists can rarely achieve a fraction of what we do, or did anyway, and even then they usually do it by nudging certain things into place and letting them fall. The magical equivalent of dominoes, or maybe a Rube Goldberg machine."

The reference went over Alex's head with a nearly audible whoosh. "OK... so why is this important to know?"

"Glad you asked!" Justin said, perhaps too excitedly. "You see, a soul is a type of magical energy. This means that, as a corollary to the first principle, a spirit cannot be destroyed."

"That's comforting, I suppose," Alex said. "But doesn't that mean it can be changed into another kind of energy? Wouldn't that mean that the me-ness that makes up me wouldn't be, well, me anymore?"

Justin blinked. "What?"

"I dunno, it just feels strange to me... if you can manipulate energy, and spirits are energy... I mean, you know that you can change people's thoughts and feelings with magic, easily," she said, grinning slightly at the memories that brought back. But then she frowned again. "But doesn't that mean that a spirit could be effectively destroyed by molding it into a different enough pattern?"

"I... I don't know," Justin admitted. It was rare that Justin didn't know something, but Alex was bringing up very difficult questions, even for him. "Maybe we should ask dad?"

"Ask dad what?" said their father, who happened to be walking down the stairs at the time.

"Alex has a question about our spirits, or souls, I suppose," Justin explained.

"Is the question the difference between the two? Because a soul is a higher vibratory frequency," Jerry began to say.

"No no, it's not quite that. I think that's confusing enough," Alex said. "My question is, a soul can't be destroyed, but can it be changed in form?"

"Theoretically yes," Jerry said. "But it would take someone of immense, and I mean extraordinarily immense power to do so."

"Oh, I guess that's also comforting," Alex said. "But isn't Max that powerful?"

"I really don't know the extent of his power," Jerry admitted. "It would be best to use caution when dealing with him."

"Speaking of Max, what is he up to right now?" Justin asked.

"I don't know, why don't you check on the crystal ball?" Jerry replied.

Justin went over to where the crystal ball was stored and brought it over to the table. He set it down and waved his wand over it to activate it. "_Demonstre Max!" _he cast. "Oh crap!" he cried. "Max is attacking the Wizard Council with his army of elementals like he'd planned. What should we do?"

The crystal ball indeed showed Max leading an army of fire elementals, attacking the Wizard Council. He didn't have any anti-detection up, so apparently he didn't care who knew it.

"Oh my God, what do we do?" Alex cried, reiterating Justin's question.

"I don't know if there's anything we can do," Jerry said. "The Wizard Justice department is probably already alerted and there's nothing more we can do now, especially with Alex's powers gone. We don't really have the time to prepare any useful spells with Ritualism, either."

"There has to be something! Don't we have any magical object things around?" Alex said, fretting and beginning to pace around the room.

"We have a scrying wand with about 10 charges left and apparently a staff that creates feathers," Jerry said, rummaging through some junk in a corner.

"Wait, a staff that creates feathers! Justin, didn't you say that a feather was a symbol of air?"

"Yes," Justin said slowly. "That is true, but I really don't see how that helps us here."

"What is mortal ritualism good at? Like I mean, really good at?" Alex said.

"What, you didn't even answer -"

"Just answer, you'll get it," she said.

"Well, extremely subtle spells, communicating with spirits, that kind of thing."

"And how do you communicate with spirits?"

"You raise your consciousness to be in line with the planes on which they live," Justin said. "Or you bring them down to our plane. Wait, is that what you're talking about?" It began to dawn on him just what Alex was suggesting here. "You mean to summon your own army of elementals? I'm not sure we could do that even if you had your powers, let alone through Ritualism! We're nowhere near progressed enough."

"We have to try!" Alex cried, grabbing the staff from Jerry's hands and running through the door to the portal. Justin and Jerry ran after her.


	26. Their own army

Alex was at the door to the Wizard Council's portal when Jerry and Justin caught up to her. Before they could say or do anything, however, the door opened.

"Alex Russo," said the bearded wizard who had opened the door. "I'm not sure now is the time! We're under attack -"

"By a lich and his army of fire elementals, I know. I'm here to rescue you," Alex said, walking through and into the Wizard Council. The bearded wizard shrugged and let Jerry and Justin in as well.

"I don't know what you could do," the bearded one continued. "Especially since your powers were taken away."

Jerry and Justin exchanged a confused glance.

"I'm, uh, rather well known in the Council," Alex said evasively. Then she shook her head. "Either way, we have more important things to worry about right now. I'm going to summon our own army of elementals," she said, as though it were merely a matter of doing it at this point.

"And just how are you going to do that without your powers?" the older wizard said, skeptically.

"Well, I suppose you could give them back to me," Alex suggested. "Otherwise I'm going to use Mortal Ritualism."

"Ugh, Ritualism," the older wizard said as though it were something slightly dirty that he didn't want to touch. "I wish I could give you your powers back, but I don't have the ability to do so. Everyone else is outside fighting the elementals, too, I'm just here to hold the portal room."

"Ritualism it is then," Alex said, slamming down the feather staff and creating a feather. She grabbed it. "Now, where can I summon this thing?"

"The grand hall should be big enough. Just out this door and to the right. You can't miss it."

"Thanks," Alex said, heading off in that direction and waving vaguely. Jerry and Justin followed her. They found the grand hall just where they were told, without any trouble.

Alex took the feather and began to concentrate on it when Justin interrupted her. "Wait, Alex, how are you going to bind the elemental to your control?" He asked.

"I don't know... I kind of just hoped I would beg it to help us."

"Well for goodness sake, at least draw a protective circle first," he said, fishing into his pocket and pulling out a piece of chalk.

"You carry chalk with you?" Alex asked.

"Well you never know when you might have to draw a magical sigil, or a protection circle," he said, drawing the aforementioned shape. "There," he said when finished. "Summon it in the middle of that circle so that it can't come out in case it decides to be hostile.

"All right, here goes nothing," Alex said, concentrating on the feather again. She relaxed and began to elevate her consciousness to a higher plane so that she could communicate with an air elemental, using the feather as her focus. Jerry and Justin watched her intently for a few minutes. Then Alex broke concentration and shook her head.

"No good, I'm not powerful enough to actually bring the elementals here. I saw them, though! Wait, Justin, what if we did it together? Both of us tugging would have to be stronger," she reasoned.

"All right," Justin said, walking over to Alex. They linked hands and both began to focus on the feather. Soon the air in the hall began to swirl around, and they knew it was working. They focused for longer, and a being began to take form, in the shape of a column of air, barely visible as permutations in the currents around the hall, but contained within the circle that Justin had drawn.

"Who calls me?" it said with voice of thunder.

"Please sir," Alex said, dropping her brother's hands and stepping toward it. "We're under attack by an army of fire elementals, and we need your help to fight them off!"

"A noble enough cause. But why should I care? It is no business of my own."

Alex's face sunk. Her plan wasn't working. Just then, Justin stepped up toward it. He began to speak in a language that Alex didn't understand (which, admittedly, could have been just about anything other than English.) The elemental responded in the same tongue, and then Justin erased the circle. The air rushed out of the hall.

"What did you say to it?" Alex asked.

"I commanded him to help us," Justin said. "See, with spirits, who may not wish to help if asked, you sometimes have to use your authority."

"I didn't know you had that sort of authority," Alex said.

"Oh yes, most definitely. As a human, we have authority over a lot of spirits," Justin explained.

"Far be it from me to break up a magic lesson," Jerry said. "But don't we have something to do right now?"

Justin and Alex nodded and the three of them began to run outside.

* * *

Max had made it to the front door with most of his elementals intact. So far everything was going well. He just needed to figure out how to get in the front door, when suddenly it burst open. He could see, from the aura, that an air elemental was the cause. It began to grapple his nearest fire elemental.

"Ah, looks like they're beginning to put up a resistance," Max said. He left the fire elemental to attack the air elemental and began to work his way inside. The air elemental took notice of this though, and broke off from attacking the fire elemental to buffet Max. Max erected a shield and continued on his way. The fire elemental began to attack the air elemental again, so the air elemental had to turn to engage the fire elemental, leaving Max to get inside the Wizard Council.


	27. Emergency

There is an emergency button in the Chairman of the Council's chambers. It is big and red and under a molly guard. Old Chuck, the Chairman, had retreated inside and managed to make his way to his chambers. The molly guard was up, but the button was not yet pressed. Even considering the circumstances, Old Chuck wasn't sure that he was prepared to accept the consequences of pushing that button.

* * *

Alex, Justin and Jerry were outside now, and they had just missed Max going in.

"I don't see Max!" Alex yelled over the sounds of the battle. As it was, their air elemental had taken out two fire elementals with help from a few Wizard Council wizards who had quickly learned what side it was on.

"Maybe he's inside!" Jerry yelled. They retreated through the doorway to stay inside. Meanwhile, some fire elementals were approaching.

"Quick, banish them!" Jerry yelled. Alex, Justin and Jerry all began to trace mystical sigils in the air. The process was slower and not as powerful as the banishing that Alex and Justin had performed earlier, especially given that they didn't have access to a full wizard's powers, but in a pinch they might have to do. Even Alex had memorized the banishing ritual.

They all concentrated on one of the approaching fire elementals, and when the ritual was done, it "poofed" back to from whence it came.

"This isn't going to work fast enough," Jerry yelled. "I have an idea! Alex, the Councilors have probably withdrawn back inside. If you can find one of them maybe you can convince them to give you your powers back. Go!" he cried. Alex nodded and ran off.

"Meanwhile, let's look for Max," Jerry said to Justin. They began to jog down the hall, in another direction from where Alex had gone off to.

* * *

Androcas had, by now, burst through the back wall of the Wizard Council. He had a number of elementals following him, inside the building. His mission was to reconvene with Max at the center of the Council HQ. But he made a detour, down another hall toward a dark set of stairs. A sign at the top of them read "Forbidden Artefacts" in ancient script.

* * *

Max opened the door to the Chairman's chambers. There was Old Chuck himself, standing over the button, molly guard down.

"So, did you manage to press it before I got here?" Max said, restraining Old Chuck with a wave of his hands.

"Yes," Old Chuck said, grinning inanely. "I just pressed it, just before you got in."

"You're bluffing," Max said. He faked a yawn (as he was incapable of doing so for real.) "How dull."

"I am not, I really have pressed it," Old Chuck defended. "Subject me to any torture you like and I'll say the same thing."

"I sincerely doubt it matters if you had. The Wizard Justice department is still busy fighting my elementals. My right-hand man will be here any minute, as well. It is over. I have won, and come to take the spoils," Max said, beginning to rifle through the papers on Old Chuck's desk. "You know, once I know all of the Council's secrets, I'm going to destroy this whole building," he said. "And then kill all the Councilors. There will be nothing left of them. Ah drat! Look at me, exposing my evil – but rather straightforward – plan. Not that I expect you'll be able to foil it, but I can't take any chances." Max magically reached out and stopped Old Chuck's heart. The old wizard's body fell limp and clattered to the floor.

As Max looked through the Wizard Council documents, reveling in and soaking in his success, Jerry and Justin came into the room. Max barely glanced at them, restraining them with the same spell that he'd used on Old Chuck.

"Look at this, a family reunion," Max said. "You know, I really do like you two. And dear sister, too. It's why I haven't killed any of you yet," he explained. "I feel that you could be useful. Justin, the things you've done, even without true magic? Amazing! I didn't even know about Mortal Ritualism until you forced me to learn. And father, what a teacher you are! Teaching Justin enough to do all that, teaching Alex enough to triumph against a Sorcerer – yes, I know what I am now – and look what else you've done! You banished two of my own elementals. I couldn't be prouder," he said, causing his voice to break mockingly. "So yes, I know it is cliché to say 'join me or die' but you know, I like you two enough, I think I'll give you that option."

Justin and Jerry glared at him.

* * *

Alex had found herself in the basement. She thought that was where the Councilors might go to avoid the fighting. It might be the best place to hole up. But she didn't see anyone until she got to the Forbidden Artefact room. Out of that room she saw a skeleton step. By now, she knew what Max looked like, and she could tell that this wasn't him.

"Stay back," she cried, brandishing her wand. She knew that she didn't have her powers, but she hoped that this other skeleton didn't.

"Wait! Don't hurt me, I can help you," he said.

"Why should I listen to you? Aren't you helping my brother?"

The skeleton sighed. "Yes. And in fact, it's my fault that he came back the way he did. But I had no idea it would work out like this. Look, if he knew what I was saying right now, he'd kill me and end the spell that is keeping my whole tribe alive, well, for a certain definition of alive, anyway. But I want to take the risk. Max has grown too powerful. Someone needs to stop his reign of terror. I don't think I can – Max already knows that I hate him, anything I could do to him wouldn't be powerful enough. But you can, I think! Take this." He dropped a rounded gemstone on the ground. It was an emerald and it glowed slightly. He pushed it toward Alex with his foot. She bent down and picked it up, but kept her wand trained on the skeleton. Instantly, upon grasping it, she was filled with the vision of what the item was for.


	28. Betrayal

"... of course, I could also use a court jester," Max was saying, now right up against Justin. "Wouldn't that be fitting? I was always the inane one, the silly one, the dumb one. Imagine my straight-laced older brother entertaining me for all eternity! Why, it makes me laugh. Ha ha." His laugh was still hollow and unjovial.

It was about that time that Androcas came into the room, escorting Alex.

"Look who I found downstairs," Androcas said.

"Oh good! I was hoping you would get here," Max said. Androcas left her, wearing magical handcuffs, restrained similarly to Justin and Jerry, and went to Max's side.

"You tricked me!" Alex cried at Androcas. "You told me that you hated Max!"

"Ha ha," Max 'laughed' again. "Oh make no mistake sister, he does hate me. But he is scared of me. Isn't that right Androcas? You're so damn scared that I will kill your precious comrades in that ass-backwards little village that you would never betray me. And you know why, Androcas? Because it's _all your fault_. Their blood would be on your hands if they died now, and it's already your fault that they're in the state they're in," Max said, his eyes beginning to glow. "That's why you'll never do anything. You're too fucking scared."

None of his collected relatives had ever heard Max talk this way, let alone curse so much. But Androcas didn't seem to react at all. He just stared at Max's empty eyes with his own.

Then, in a flash, Androcas brought his skeletal hand up and blasted Max with a kind of energy. Nothing seemed to happen, and Max began laughing in his creepy voice.

"What, you thought that you could _hurt_ me? I mean, props for trying and all, but there was no way -" Max's tirade was interrupted by Alex, hitting him on the back of the head with the gemstone that Androcas had given her earlier.

"What, but – what is that supposed to – ahhhhhhh" Max cried as his soul was sucked into the gem. The lifeless body that was his skeleton fell to the floor.

"Well done, Alex," Androcas said in a weary voice. Alex smiled at him.

"Nice job with the fake magical handcuffs," she said.

"And good acting on your part," Androcas said, his voice grower even more hoarse. He slumped to the ground.

"Androcas!" Alex cried. "You're going to die, and your village too!"

"I know," he said in a whisper.

"Isn't there anything we can do?"

"With the threat of Max gone, I think they'll forgive me," Androcas said. "We can now all be at peace, with our ancestors." With that, his body hit the floor. Alex sniffled. All this was getting to be too much for her again.

"Look, we have to be strong," Justin said. The restraint spell seemed to have worn off when Max was captured, so he gave his sister a brief hug to let her know that although they needed to get going, he was still there for her. She hugged him back.

"We still have some fire elementals to take care of, though," Justin said after they broke the embrace. Alex nodded and then suddenly clutched her stomach.

"I don't feel well all of a sudden," she said.

"I don't either," Justin said.

"Hmm, it feels like a magic dead zone," Jerry said.

"How could that be? Neither Alex nor I have magic at the moment. We wouldn't feel anything different."

"Well, everyone has a little bit of magic. That's why magic dead zones feel so strange."

Soon after that, however, the feeling passed.

"That was strange," Alex said. "But come on, let's go." They all left the chambers.

As they approached the door, they saw wizards coming back inside. Some were limping, some were helping other wizards along, and many were singed.

"What's going on?" Alex asked. "Did you defeat the fire elementals?"

"No," said one nearby wizard. "Old Chuck must have gotten through."

"Gotten through to who?" Alex asked, but the wizard was already leaving, so Jerry, Justin and Alex all continued outside.

When they got out, they saw what looked like a big flying saucer on the field outside of the Wizard Council HQ. Alex ran up to it, and saw, as she got closer, that some wizards were talking to two tall figures who were standing next to the saucer.

"Thank you for aiding us," one of the wizards was saying to one of the green-skinned, bug-eyed creatures. "Old Chuck must have gotten through to the Martian Government after all."

"Yes. We understand that he only wanted to in the most dire of emergencies because of the panic that might ensue if anyone saw our ship approaching, but we suppose that he deemed this dire enough."

"Wait, there are Martians?" Alex asked, coming up behind them. The wizards looked surprised to see her.

"Alex, what are you doing here?" one of them asked. (It was previously mentioned, but should be reiterated here, that she is very well known among the Council.)

"Just helping out. So what happened to the fire elementals?"

"Our friends here banished them," the wizard said, gesturing to the Martians.

"Huh, how did they do that?"

"A Null Magic Field Generator," one of the Martians explained. "Since magic was keeping them on this plane, we just had to interrupt it for a moment to cause them all to be banished back to their planes of existence.

"Wow," Alex said. "How do you build a Null Magic Field Generator?"

"Oh, it's simple in concept. You just read the local magic, throw it 180 degrees out of phase and feed it back."

"Huh, you lost me," Alex said. "Ah well, I was never good with science stuff."

"OK Alex, we still have to defeat that lich," the other wizard said. "I expect our comrades are regrouping inside."

"No need," Alex said. "He is defeated. I have his soul trapped inside this gem," she said, holding up the emerald.

"Egad, that's from the Forbidden Artefacts room!" the wizard said. "How did you know to get it?"

"I, I don't know," Alex said, faltering. For some reason she didn't want to say exactly what happened.

"Well then! Old Chuck will want to see that."

"Ah, the old, grey wizard with the beard?"

"You'll have to be more specific than that."

"He had green robes on today?"

"Yeah, him! Go find him."

"Yeah, he was in his chambers. Ma- I mean, the lich got him."

"Oh, that makes... Councilor Chancer the acting Chairman."

Alex thanked them and went inside to see if she could find Councilor Chancer. Justin and Jerry had gone inside already and was telling everyone that the lich was destroyed, so they didn't have to look for him anymore. Alex asked around and eventually found Councilor Chancer. He was in the Chairman's chambers, looking at the mess.

"Well, looks like I'm the Chairman now, dammit," he said to Alex as she came in. "Oh, you're Alex Russo," he said.

Alex blushed ever so slightly. "Do you guys have a wanted poster of me or something?"

"No, just a picture in your file. But we're all very familiar with your file," he explained.

"Oh. Well I have the lich's soul trapped in this gem," she said, giving it to him. Councilman Chancer took it and nodded.

"Yes, thank you," he said. "You've done quite a service to magic today."

"Does that mean I can have my powers back?" Alex asked hopefully.

"Sure! As soon as your one-month suspension is over," Chancer said.


	29. Epilogue

**A.N.: The time has come to put this arc of the story to bed. I know everyone was expecting this story to keep going, but I'm afraid that as far as this story goes, it is over. But, in a sense, it is also not over, because I plan on writing a sequel very soon! So you won't see any more updates to "Battle Royale", but a new story will be in the works! Be sure to subscribe to my author alerts to learn about it as soon as I post the first chapter! The sequel will be a direct continuation of the characters as I have them now, but be an entirely new adventure for our young wizards!**

*** * ***

Alex indeed got her powers back after the month-long suspension, as was promised. She was glad to have them back and promptly ceased her study of Mortal Ritualism. Justin however, continued to study it. He put even more work into it than he had in his previous wizard training, if that can be believed.

The Wizard Council HQ was repaired of its destroyed doors and walls, and things went back to relative normalcy. Even the arrival of the Martians only caused a few people to claim to see flying saucers, and these reports were discredited as much as any other UFO sighting claim. Perhaps Old Chuck's reservations were for naught, and perhaps the Martians should have been summoned earlier, to avoid the problem entirely. Well hindsight is 20/20 and no one blames Old Chuck for what he did. He was given a wonderful funeral, and eulogies about his bravery to the very end were given, despite the fact that no one really knew for sure what had happened. Nevertheless, they did say that he made the right decisions.

Max's punishment for mass homicide and conspiracy to destroy the Wizard Council was to remain in the gem for all eternity. Additionally, extremely powerful magic was used to compel him to answer any question asked of him, to the best of his knowledge. One only needed to activate the gem in order to speak with him. The gem was given to Alex for her service to magic. 


End file.
